Poet of the Month 084: MENGISTU LEMMA

 

MENGISTU LEMMA

1925 – 1988

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LONGING

 

 

 

 

The train hauled me out of London—
out of the smoke, the smog, the grime,
the filthy mix of soot and dust—
while the train spun fog from the fabric of steam,
clothing the land with its garment
of blessings and punishment,
Yizze kataf, yizze kataf, goes the powerful weaver.
Isn’t it amazing?  Life’s a miracle:
escaping the smog through the power of coal!

 

 

The carriage was big enough for ten,
but no one was brave enough to open the door
I’d shut fast to keep in the warmth.
Instead, they huddled in the corridor,
unwilling to share the warmth with a black man—
even though coal is black, even though
the wealth of England was forged by black coal.

 

 

The train whistled like a washint flute;
haystacks dotted the distant fields,
just like the straw roofs of houses in a village at home. And, in the blink of an eye, I turned into

'a traveller of God' in the meadows of England…

 

 

'Greetings to your household,' I cried,
I am your "black," your unexpected, guest:
and bring with me, to your kindness, God's blessing.' 'Welcome, come in!', the head of the household replied. Then his wife brought a bowl of warm water,
and kneeling down happily to wash my feet,

'Don’t be shy, my friend,' she said.

 

 

First my mouth blessed that tulla beer of Gojjam,
then a bowl arrived, and my empty stomach began to fill
as I licked the linseed oil of Gondar from my fingers;
next, chicken stew rich with curds.  Contented,
I yawned.  Sleep overcame me as I lay down
on fine cotton and was covered with wool…

 

 

Dimly, I heard the door slide open—but was fully awake
by the time it slammed shut.  I jumped,
but then calmed myself down,
glowering at the reckless young man,
the brave one who'd dared to enter my den as I slept.
But his spotless shirt and neat matching tie made me laugh: he was so amazingly clean!

 

 

 

 

? c 1952

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Translated by

 

MARTIN ORWIN

 

with

The Poetry Translation Workshop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poet and playwright Mengistu Lemma was born in Harar, a city in eastern Ethiopia, in August 1925.  The son of an aleqa, a chief priest of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, he was educated in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and, from 1948, in London where he attended the Regent Street Polytechnic School and the London School of Economics.  He remained in the English capital until 1954 where he was able to meet and establish a brief friendship with the Anglo-Irish playwright, critic and political activist George Bernard Shaw prior to the latter's death in November 1950.

 

 

After returning to his homeland, Lemma was appointed First Secretary of the Ethiopian Embassy to India and relocated to New Delhi in 1957, remaining in the post until 1963.  It was during his time in India that he completed his first play Telfo Be Kissie [Marriage by Abduction, 1959] which he had originally begun as a wedding gift for a friend and subsequently translated into English following its debut performance in 1962.  He also wrote the plays Yalacha Gabicha [Marriage of Unequals, 1964], Tsere Colonialist and Bale Kaba Ena Bale Daba (1979), all of which featured a strong social message, and the first book on dramatic technique ever published in Amharic, the language of modern Ethiopia.  His fluency in English also allowed him to produce effective translations of Anton Chekhov's 1888 play The Bear and JB Priestley's popular 1945 play An Inspector Calls.  Priestley, along with William Shakespeare, was one of Lemma's formative influences as a playwright and directly inspired much of his later work for the stage in which he routinely criticized the hypocritical attitudes of the Ethiopian upper classes.

 

In later life Lemma became the Director of the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs — a position which saw him visit Europe, North America, the USSR and Türkiye — and Secretary General of the Ethiopian Literary Society.  He was the author of several works of criticism, written in both English and his native Amharic, and a culturally significant transcription of his father's oral memoirs.  In 1967 he received the Haile Selassie I Prize Trust Award for his outstanding contributions to Amharic literature. 

 

Mengistu Lemma died in Addis Ababa on 29 July 1988.

 

 

 

 

Use the link below to read a brief article about MENGISTU LEMMA by his former university colleague JANE PLASTOW:

 

https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2018/06/02/remembering-mengistu-lemma-ethiopian-playwright-and-social-reformer/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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