Menelek Menelek Epiphaphon Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

Menelek menelek epiphaphon
These the words that came to me
In to the language that I want
To father in this day and to make grow:
Piron piron didan et semenek
These the next words
I totter like a child half-listlessly
Not knowing where they came from
Not caring where they came from
Not knowing what the thought
The meaning and the world adjoined to them:
Save their sweet rhythm full agreeable.
Ah! it is better so better so! – this, this new world
That I bring home to me for me with me
Will save me from the world
Of kings and presidents, of millionaires,
Of prisoners and soldiers and laborers
Priests, dancers, white-collar workers
And the rest, the rest – the list ever grows:
Miman jikan tahildahan
Meantime like a child I glee
In the next line of words in my new language –
My new world distinct-different
From the world of all of us, this sour world
Of restless ease –
But meantime like a child I glee in my new words
Not caring where they came from
Not knowing what the thought
The meaning and the world adjoined to them:
Save their sweet rhythm full agreeable.