Sauti?

Shingo zetu zimechongoka
            asubuhi kuilekea
lakini usiku wasogea
            ukichimba misingi ya nyumba,
                      na ukuta wa dakika nyumba
                      kuizunguka.

Kifo kimeadhimishwa
na ule wakati uliotandazika
                      mpaka
kila cha zamani kimesahaulika
isipokuwa majani makavu yalokauka
Mitini, mara kwa mara, yakitingisika

   Ati n'nani aliyesikia sauti?
   Kama kwamba kuna mtu huko mbinguni
wa kutulipia damu yetu iliyomwagwa
            na kumwagika

***********************
 Alamin Mazrui

( English Translation by 
The Poetry Translation Workshop)
 

The Voice?

Our throats sharpen
towards morning
but night approaches
      digging the foundations of the house
             and the wall of minutes
             that surrounds the house
Death is honoured
by time stretched out
until everything past has been forgotten
other than the leaves that dried
on the tree, that tremble, now and then
   Who would have heard the voice?
   As if there were a person in heaven
to pay for our blood that was poured
      and poured out