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Lemon for love
Today Mahmoud Ahmed is singing again wailing out of Abebe’s radio lemon for love! lemon for love! lemon you are so sweet his voice is long and stringy as a branch it throws the lemon down at his girlfriend’s feet lemon for love! lemon you are so tasty! if she picks it up, it means she will marry him now the chorus is shouting hohohohoho! clapping all its hands, stamping its fifty feet now Abebe’s fingers are jumping and clicking shoulders shaking! knees popping! because the girl in the song is beautiful as Makda Queen of Sheba and yes! she has bent to pick up the lemon Mahmoud Ahmed, you must never stop singing your voice can make anything happen it twists round my brain like the roots of a tree it opens a fresh leaf in my heart Mahmoud Ahmed, if I sit here by Abebe’s window will you throw my lemon for me? (from Ethiopia Boy) Sweetheart Yemisrach puts an arm around her husband whispers hodé! in his ear because here you say my stomach not my sweetheart and I say how on the nose that stomachs stand for love here in Ethiopia where people still admit how close a crop and with it everything we masticating sugar-burning walking, humming circuitries of science art, philosophy can come to being lost… Yemisrach wets our hands and towels them then Gedilu loads up a pouch of injera one-handed with a zilbo stew hodé! he says as he says every day the first mouthful is for you (from Tenderfoot) |
Click on this photo to listen to Mahmoud Ahmed singing Lomiwen teqebelech (She accepted the lemon) 
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እናቴ ከመልካዋ
ከመንግሥት ፈቃድ፣ ሰነድም ሳያሻት፣ እናቴን በምሥጢር፣ በውስጤ ደብቄያት፣ በናፍቆት አርግዛኝ፣ በናፍቆት አርግዣት፣ አሥራ ስምንት ዓመት፣ ቆይቼ ሳኖራት፣ አሁን ግን እምዬን፣ በሞት ስንቀማ፣ የተስፋዬ ጨረር፣ አጽናኜ የነበር፣ በናፍቆት ጨለማ፣ ከልቤ ወጣና፣ እሱም ተስፋ ቆርጦ፣ መንታ አነባ እኔ ጋ፣ ሃዘን ተቀምጦ። |
My mother in her country town
by Alemu Tebeje I did not need a permit to keep my mother deep inside of me for eighteen years, her sadness at not seeing me, my sadness at not seeing her. But after eighteen years she died and then the tiny ray of hope inside the sadness of not seeing her slipped out of me and sat down on the ground and wept. |
