Oh! My Beautiful Motherland!
By
Abiyu Berlie
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Oh! My Beautiful Motherland!
Please Don't Cry!
Lift Your Spirits High!
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Born from the wounded womb of Mother Earth
Always young and fresh, growing and evolving, and giving birth
You still have a bright future against all odds.
After three thousand years!
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Please don't cry!
Lift your spirits high!
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Coming out from a painful labor,
Violent cracks, quakes, faults and tremor
Intense heat and fire
Earth shattering thunders, volcanic storms and ashes,
Drowning avalanches and surging waves
Cut across deeply with sharp rift valleys and stunning gorges
Guarded for centuries, by sky high majestic mountains, and frightening jungles
Embellished with virgin forests, and beautiful meadows
Embroidered with glittering rocks, silver sands, and sparkling lakes
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Oh! My Beautiful Motherland!
Please Don't Cry!
Lift Your Spirits High!
***************
Blessed with thirteen months of sunshine and twinkling stars
Morning and evening golden skylines
Decorated with mesmerizing banners; green, yellow and red rainbows
Filled with variety, diverse and colorful seeds
Growing on strong, peaceful, resilient, rich, fertile and deep cultures.
Tightening your waist for centuries,
With an authentic black African belt, wore on a bright colorful dress
Always defended by your children's love and wit, blood and sweat
Passing all generations' history test
Conquering qualm with calm; malaise with faith; crisis with peace; turmoil with tranquil.
Keeping intact your great name and valor;
Rich values and manner,
As natural and original;
As written in historical manuscripts; even the holy books of the Koran and the Bible.
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Oh! My Beautiful Motherland!
Please Don't Cry!
Lift Your Spirits High!
***************
You are the origin of humanity!
The birthplace of society!
The source of natural wonders and history!
Adam and Eve's native country!
Please tell us your deepest feelings; your pains and frustrations
Help us renew our spirits! Raise our conscious!
Please tell us who invaded your privacy?
Robbed your eternal honor and virginity
Stole your priceless natural gifts, great potentials and serenity
Amazing grace and divine beauty!
Please tell us who took away your heart and soul?
Your hidden treasure and magic oil,
Exposed your body to torture,
Heat and fire.
Gave you scars and birthmarks,
Cursed you to chronic bloodshed and crisis;
And abandoned you to the mercy of chances,
Plunged you into natural and unnatural, manmade risks.
Submerged you to uncertainty and dependency
Condemned you to perpetual latency
Stripped your power and extraordinary quality
Took advantage of your innocence, kindness and honesty
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Oh! My Beautiful Motherland!
Please Don't Cry!
Lift Your Spirits High!
***************
Please tell us who overcame your old fortresses,
Spoiled the treasures of your beautiful churches, mosques, and temples
Destroyed your emblem statues and monuments
Devastated your green trees and forests
Scared away your happy singing birds
Please tell us who wiped out your beautiful meadows, grasslands and endless farms?
Filled your children's playgrounds, crop and battle fields with grave yards!
Oh! My Beautiful Motherland! Please tell us!
Where are your dark pregnant clouds?
That poured from the sky generous rains for generations
What happened to the galloping and elegant falls?
The beautiful black and white streams; with crystal clear waters
That decorated and lavished your green valleys, hills and fields for centuries
Where are the roaring and meandering gentle rivers?
That sprouted and energized life for centuries.
Wondering around deep gorges, valleys and deserts
Venturing thousands of miles out bounds
Reaching out to remote lands, seas and oceans
To nourish and cultivate the cradle of civilizations
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Oh! My Beautiful Motherland!
Please Don't Cry!
Lift Your Spirits High!
***************
Please tell us what happened to your roaming cattle herds?
Where are the proud lions and tigers?
The colorful zebras and giraffes; the graceful elephants!
Who took away all that glory? Centuries old history!
The beautiful obelisks; elegant castles and palaces; the assembly and power houses
The ancient mosques and churches, temples and old schools
Generations of prayers, hymns and songs
And left you for begging and mercy?
Marred you forever with the poison roots of poverty!
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Oh! My Beautiful Motherland!
Please Don't Cry!
Lift Your Spirits High!
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Please call your children, the new generations!
Tell them the glories, adventures and stories of their forefathers
Tell them about heroism
Teach them the meaning of patriotism
Ask them why they are ashamed and cowardly to stand for your defense?
Urge them to come to court and witness
Let them see you when you stand alone defenseless
When your love and conviction for peace and justice;
Harmony and unity; freedom and dignity are questioned
When your deep values and rich cultures are judged
When your history is cross examined and ridiculed
When your valor and honor is tarnished
Let them come and see you when your heart is broken
When your tearful eyes turn red and swollen.
Let them see you when you feel betrayed and abandoned;
When you feel helpless, hopeless, miserable and aimless
Facing a life term verdict of intolerance, bloodshed, crisis and chaos
Ask them why? Why to you all this?
Ask them where are the rich legacies you passed them from their great ancestors?
What happened to all your blessings?
Where is your wisdom?
Your teachings of confidence, unity, love, understanding and optimism
Where are your great traditions of courage, perseverance, valor and sacrifice?
Your rich values of peace and tolerance,
Where is your advice for commitment, and to stand always for truth!
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Oh! My Beautiful Motherland!
Please Don't Cry!
Lift Your Spirits High!
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Please ask your children why they fight needlessly, endlessly on your past and history!
Holding chronic grudges and rivalry
To score points for blood and treachery!
Please ask them why do you need to pay a high price for remorse?
To compensate for your evolution, growing pains and innocent mistakes
Please reassure them they still have you-their greatest prize
Their bright future in their hands!
They only need to know how to grab and use their great opportunities and chances
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Oh! My Beautiful Motherland!
Please Don't Cry!
Lift Your Spirits High!
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Accept your judgment and the injustice with full dignity and courage
Because you still have a long journey and voyage
Scorn the irony and absurdity of society and a long life;
Witness when your great name is convicted for a life term sentence
To serve as a substitute for hunger, starvation, poverty, despair and internal crisis
Witness the irrationality and disparity of society and natural life
When a smooth, long and peaceful road twists and suddenly goes rough
Look at with amazement the great illusion of nature
Society's love affair with hypocrisy lies and fan fare.
Witness the unity and perpetuity; contention and struggle of dream and nightmare;
Hope and despair; peace and war; honor and horror!
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Oh! My Beautiful Motherland!
Please Don't Cry!
Lift Your Spirits High!
Open your arms to the sky and pray!
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Don't worry! You will survive and strive!
As always, you will be fine and alive
You will win and pass this crisis
You will overcome the obstacles.
Your new glorious era will inevitably come
You know from your long and arduous history, it is just a matter of time!
Please don't be disheartened; keep up your full faith
Continue to pray, bless and give birth
Pray for genuine, selfless and charismatic leaders
Whose roots are from all your peoples and races
Pray to give birth to children who will have nothing but your beautiful features
Your rich values and noble characters
Pray they sprout from your diverse and colorful seeds, fertile and rich soils
Pray for those children who will love you with passion
Have your magic power to unite and bring together, your children and grandchildren.
Pray they will inherit your great wisdom to recover your hope, high spirit and confidence,
To love their motherland, your history and self sacrifice
To uphold your resilience, great name and glory
Set you on the right track, brighten your future and lead you to victory
To liberate you from all ills and evils; poverty and hunger
Starvation, disease, oppression and civil war
And make you once and for all free forever!!
Enable you to enjoy peace, freedom, prosperity, security and glory
And continue to build on your long and rich history!
Abiyu Berlie
www.nileartstreams.com
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