| Tiss Isat I Name it the Zero cataract, Across the arcs of the sun Rain forest lush of green Stunning thunder is born of fame, Where Tiss-Isat now falls The Abbay wrenches itself From the Tana mother-lake, It is a total oblivion. Name it the Zero cataract, Water smokes far in the sky A wall of whitest spray Shafts of rainbows break Down the darkest cliffs Biblical pillars of cloud arise. Name it the Zero cataract One sheet of water One sheet of light, Hills tremble Earth vibrates Droplets of water are turned to rays, It is the scene of a lifetime, Name it the Zero cataract.
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II Fire on the skyscape, flaming magic of clouds Eternal symbol of our mightiest ancestors Who first tamed and navigated the primordial oceans And bent the skies with their power of love, Witness Tiss-Isat, symbol of our glowing universe Making new colossal shapes out of our ancient earth Molding gigantic mountains Raising new great rift rocks Out of the deepest heart of our world To channel the longest river on the globe To make knew planets reach out for the eye of the sun According to our fathers' power of dreams Witness Tiss-Isat, across the oceans and the skies Bridging our forbearers' most magnificent visions Over and across all midgetic nightmares To heal our wounded days crushed down for mercy To heal all our hard stifled stillnesses. Witness Tiss-Isat, fire on the skyscape Symbol of the world's terrible trembling myth The secret in everyone of us that rises while falling That falls while rising towards the towering rivers of the sky And towards the towering hamlets of all our tomorrows, Witness Tiss-Isat, flaming magic clouds in flight.
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III Like lava flames breaking loose skywards From the deepest stomach of Dallol earth Volumes upon volumes of water-mountains rise Spitting, colossal clouds transformed to blue Endless horizons arming primordial water-mother Our most awkward innocence made stone stiff Under the feet of the boundless hills Toe to head-top, our littleness ripped apart, Out of our eyes sun exploding Into our brains mountains erupting, Hail Tiss-Isat, Zero cataract Atbara's throne that came down from the sky. Listen to the thunder of the infinite appeal To the breathing voices of irons and rocks That melts in the call upon our hearts of stones, It's the healing powers from the birth-land of water Celestial space showering upon our frigid faces Rocks trembling under our cruel feet Stars pouring down upon our hard grafted skins. Pillar of endless time, Tiss-Isat Riding above shields of the sun Piercing the blue, invoking the stars Resurrection of winged Atlantis Floating on the edge of light Soaring colossus, roof Africa becoming sky Witness Tiss-Isat, Zero cataract. |
@Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin
11th January, 1990
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia