KAYE (NUPE POEM): EGANTA NYAKAGI (PEN CONFESSION)

Kayekaci

Isyaku Bala Ibrahim

Musukanna na è lotun woncinko na mi yi ò
Yagi gusa
Egi kpansanná

Tun-à-lo gá mi yi ò
Mi è ge enya
Mi ma è nyì enya
Mi à yizhe sà
Mi à yizhe nyì

Yekpa dèdè na è ma etun swakwa na
Mi ma à gunbe yekpa bodi
Na à tsoci mi gbadza na

E lugwa mi kpé ye ti
Nyakagi ndondo yi be tsoci ù nyi
Mi ma à bagwadan tsoci dèdè ò
Na à lefi Sòkó zhe edzo na

Tsoci na è la mi lá gurawó
Ke kunsa lá èdo guzha na
Guta gonyi ò
Wun jin mi ka gbóta
Wangi gonyi ò
Wun jin mi ka dèdè

Mi è nyì enya gán radi
Radi gá enya tegun
Mi è la ù wu kponyi

Mi le eba ye be à re
Wunga la mi ce tùn egya wunjin ecin gbani
Yekpa tsoci mi zhegba
Ce pama be tankpolo-tanza nyi ò
Wurunyebo ci à zhe eya ya wun ò

Tsoci mi wun à mi jingun
Mi à zhe tsukun egunjin
Mi è wa zhizhin yizhele mi gancin
Zhi à bò mi nyi ò
Da kafina mi tan yizhe fi na.

Translation:

PEN CONFESSION
By
Isyaku Bala Ibrahim

I’m little but mighty
The grandchild of bamboo
The progeny of stalk

I’m a doer
I better thing
And spoil thing
I better the world
And spoil it

Bad thought ruin work
I have met one
That has consumed my master

Let me educate you
every pen has its master
And I’m a victim of a bad master
That plays with peccadillo

A master that made me emptied treasury
As rat deals with groundnuts
I ought to write three
But made me write six-thousand
I ought to better my work
But made me spoil it

I destroy more than a meteor
If a meteor were to cripple a thing
I will completely destroy it

I’m blind
I vomit blood
Not ink now
Caused by my master’s thoughts
Who has made bribery a partner
And corruption a friend

I have been cheated
Turned into a tool of cheat and wickedness
I need my life back
I need a saviour
Before I bury the world