but stay home themselves. 75
19How come these leaders
never get killed?
They send to their deaths
God’s people and chiefs.
They’re Bailey’s agents. 80
20In urging us over the edge
they’re sinking Africa.
I chant this dancing
near my father’s grave.
Hawuhule! 85
Isonka e Rautini
Sakubona
17Sifunze! Kakubi
Sifuna! izibuko
Abantu bayapela 70
Kukufunzwa eweni.
18Hawulele! Hule!
Funz’eweni base Jeppe
Abamemeza ingqina
Kodwa bengayipumi. 75
19Zinani ezinkokeli
Lento zingafiyo?
Zimana zibulalisa
Abantu baka Tixo namakosi
Yimpi ka Beyele 80
20Yatshona! I-Afrika
Ngofunz’eweni
Utsho obonga engqungqa
Engcwabeni lika yise
Hawuhule 85
In the first seven stanzas, Mgqwetho salutes the new year, which she hopes will not be as frustrating to black aspirations as the preceding year. Then in response to a statement, perhaps published in a newspaper, by a Mr Thwebu, she reflects on the chiefs who have provided ineffective leadership (their royal residences now tearful places), but who could be the focal points of a new national unity, restoring the nation to health.
5 The vale of tears
(On Mr Thwebu’s article)
The years roll by: are you marking time?
1The year has passed and left us,
all signs point to its passage;
the trials of ushering the new year in
are with us. 5
2The year has passed and with it
news of people on earth,
their conduct, their cruelties,
all recorded.
3Hanewu, 1920, 10
year of frustration!
We sought our freedom:
you sent down gunfire,
Pow! and Pow! again.
4Hanewu, 1920, 15
greedy sliver like dusk,
you clubbed to his knees
Doctor Rubusana,
bull with an antelope’s guile.
5Mercy, son of Rubusana, 20
who gulped rejection like water!
Be gone, 1920,
with all your events.
6Awu! So mercy, then, 1921!
Beat to a pulp 25
5 Iziko le Nyembezi
(Ngompoposho ka Mr. Twebu)
Yadlulana? Iminyaka umi ndaweninye?
1Udlule unyaka sowusishiyile
Nango amabala ati awuseko
Nembandezelo zokubuka omtsha
Ofikileyo. 5
2Udlule unyaka wemka unendaba
Zabantu bonke abasemhlabeni
Ezokuhlala nokupatana kubi
Ziyo kubhalwa.
3Hanewu! 1920 10
Nyaka wendaniso
Safuna Inkululeko
Watoba imbumbulu
Qo kekona; Qo:
4Hanewu! 1920 15
Twangutwangu olwaba njengo ngcwalazi
Wafumbalalisa ngapantsi kwenduku
Isanuse u Rubusana inkomo
Enobugqi benyamakazi.
5Taru! Nto ka Rubusana 20
Eyasela ugxeko njengamanzi
Hamba!—1920
Nemisebenzi yako.
6Awu! Camagu ke 1921
Yiya uzihlabe uzikandanise 25
the old year’s
old deeds.
7Come with your year
right to the end,
let what you’ve brought 30
well up in springs.
Mercy, Father!
The Vale of Tears:—
8United in grief
the people assembled 35
in the square
at the Water Gate.
Nehemiah 8: 1
9If you would return to Jehovah
with all your heart, 40
cast out from among you
all foreign gods.
I Samuel7: 3
10Halahoyi, Africans!
something stinks 45
like the river snake
fouling the air.
11The vale of tears
is the vale of unity
in which all assemble, 50
even those from the heights.
12Workers’ complaints
must be brought to the bosses:
there’s nowhere else
to tend their wounds. 55
13We must stand as one
to face the bosses,
lions that stalk us
with bloody eyes.
Into ezindala
Zonyaka omdala.
7Kaufike upele
Nowako unyaka
Upume nezelo 30
Zelako iqula
Taru! Bawo!
Iziko le Nyembezi:—
8Bandula bonke abantu
Bahlangana enkundleni 35
Epambi kwesango lamanzi
Njengomntu mnye.
Nehemiah 8th chap. 1st verse.
9Ukuba nibuyela ku Yehova
Ngayo