April 24 Balwo #1

[Tinker]

Revision

Aiy Ay Old Man, I stub my toe on your walker
Aiy Ay Old Man, where did the hard heat go?
Aiy Ay Old Man, I miss the sweat of past passion,
Oh, to feel the pain of urgency once more.
                                    ~~ Judi Van Gorder

Original

Aiy Ay Old Man, I stub my toe on your walker
Aiy Ay Old Man, where did the hard heat go?
Aiy Ay Old Man, I miss the sweat of past passion,
Oh, to revisit the urgency just once more.
                                    ~~ Judi Van Gorder

Notes: ▼

Discovered a new genre of poetry, from Africa, the Balwo.

The Balwo (Somali for "misfortune") 0.5em;"> The Balwo, (Somali for "misfortune"), created by Abdi Sinimo is a genre of poetry and music expressing unhappy love in short verse with "striking imagery". *Wikipedia. After reading several Balwo's, it appears the structure of the genre is between 2 and 5 lines, most commonly 4 lines. The content expresses pain or loss from some misfortune of life, followed by a transition to expressing loss of love.

Abdi Sinimo, a Somali of the Reer Nuur subclan of the Gadabuursi first employed this genre in 1945 while working as a lorry driver for the Djiboutian Port Authority. He was driving his truck and he had the "balwo" or misfortune of the truck breaking down in bush country. Though being a skilled mechanic, after a lot of time and effort, was unable to repair it. Finally, he sat down and composed this:

Balwoy! Hoy balwoy Waha i baleyey mooyaan Waha i baleyey babur Waha i baleyey berguba.

Balwoy! O Balwoy I know not what made me suffer It is a truck that made me suffer She is berguba [a girl's name] who made me suffer

The elements of the Balwo are:

1. Short, a poem in 2, 4 or 5 lines, the most common appears to be 4 lines.
2.  chant like rhythm which is at the discretion of the poet.
3.  a misfortune of circumstance is expressed
4.  followed by a loss or pain of a particular love.

[tonyv]

Intense! I wonder if you could drop "just" from the last line?

Tony

[Tinker]

Its about the rhythm.   Oh, to revisit the urgency once more.   or Oh, to revisit the urgency one more time.   or Oh, to feel the urgency one more time. or  Oh, to feel the pain of urgency once more.

~~Judi