ogun omode ki i se ere fun ogun odun’,
Oro yeye ni eyi si mi.
Mo se iranti awon elegbe mi lati ikoko-
Ebi, aini ati adanu.
Orin ebi inu ni a n ko sun.
Ifajuro ni ami idanimo mi.
Won ba mi je, a si jo d’agba.
Mo je omo odun ogorun o le mefa,
Laipe, ma si lo eefa ni iwon ese,
pelu awon elegbe mi.
***Dialect: Yoruba
Third Prize Winner, Poetry Competition for #WorldPoetryDay 2016
Translation:
TWENTY CHILDREN
‘Twenty children do not play for twenty years’,
Those were mother’s words to me.
I recall with nostalgia my playmates from infancy-
Hunger, lack and loss.
We dined and slept to tunes hummed from within,
Grimace was my my trademark.
They bask and grew with me through childhood.
I am 86,
Soon to use the suffix of my age in feet,
with my friends from childhood.
