Who will cry for South Sudan?

by Moussa Bongoyok

(trans. and adapted by Peter W. Dunn, 20 April

©2001 Peter W. Dunn and Moussa Bongoyok)

Who will cry for those who no longer have tears,

for the Sudan rendered long so deaf by bombs,

for the southerners perishing in such fear,

where gnashing of teeth is the national song?

Who will cry for those too exhausted to weep,

demoralized by the shedding of their blood?

And who will defend those left silent and weak

being terrorized by weapons oh so loud?

Who will cry for those whose eyes have become dry?

and protest in behalf of Sudanese slaves?

And who will in compassion lament and sigh,

placing his own plans in an untimely grave?

Who will cry for those caught fast in the torrent

who must through burning deserts flee humble farms

whose hope lay not in the winds of violence,

nor alas in intervention of gendarmes?

Who will cry for those who survive to languish,

for those whose native land lies in south Sudan?

Thou, Christian, give ear to their pain and anguish.

Weep, pray, and act. But please, don’t be nonchalant.