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Poetry on the Odyssey: Somewhere in South Africa

A traveler's tale....

maridannel
Aug 06, 2018
West Chester University
77
Poetry on the Odyssey: Somewhere in South Africa
West Chester University's Honors College

Shhh…. I think South Africa's calling.

I think I hear Her hum.

It was only two months ago that I heard Her

Delicate song sung.


My love, O South Africa, what foreign tongues you teach.

There is not a translator,

Not one alive,

Who could interpret each tongue you speak.


Xhosa, Zulu, and English make music on your soil.

Though two languages are indigenous

The other,

It's…


Foreign from them all.


O my love South Africa, I am returning to you at last.

S-i-x percent of me

Heard you calling

Have we met… sometime in my past?


Though I can't make out your exact words

I know just what they say

Your warm embrace holds me

And sings to me your prayer for each day:


Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika

Maluphakanyisw' uphondo lwayo…

Lord Bless Africa

May her glory be lifted high


And, I know

I'll never forget you South Africa

To you, ill always return home.


Because

Somewhere in South Africa

Somewhere deep in South Africa

Somewhere within someone in South Africa

I left

The musical part of my soul.




- Nkosi's Haven, Johannesburg, South Africa... A little girl gave me a song and I, unknowingly, gave her my heart -

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