Remebering Bet-Ghiorgis: Our Childhood Paradise

Asmara-Massawa road

The fantastic fairy tale: " Midsummer Nights Dream" as told by Shakespeare reminds me "Bet-Giorgios," the famous resort site located on Asmara-Massawa road. It was built during the hay day of Italian colonial rule in this part of Africa endowed with attractive landscapes resembling the mountainous habitat of Alpanian people. In the late sixties,  one could see a man-made swimming pool, tennis court, ballroom (lageto), and soccer field available only for the upper and business class Italians. Every Saturday night,  it was exciting to see the old and the young in their dancing suits in a dimly lighted chamber with a background classical music such as that of Vivaldi, the great Italian Baroque composer.

Like that Shakespeare's Oberon and Titania dwelling place, it was so jungle, so amorous, so beautiful, and so fearful by night. But the honeysuckle scent emanating  from half-slept branches of the tender trees refreshed the thin air polluted by the smoke of passing cars and trucks along Asmara-Massawa road. In order to ward off the imagined little ghosts at night fall, I used to sing as the following:

If you meet a fairy
Don't run away
They would not hurt you
But they only want to play.

Bet-Ghiorgis is the place where I grew up like those dreamy and studious Eritreans (shemdidatat) of the golden sixties, the most inspiring decade that produced a generation of young writers, artists, musicians, spirituals, comedians, sportsmen and revolutionaries who were  driving forces in the Eritrean liberation movements.

It is a long story indeed!

As for now, let me share with you one of my favorite poems composed the day I joined Dehai. That was in the year of 1995. I hope the younger generation Eritreans as well as the older ones would enjoy reading it. It is time to reflect as the year 2015, the most eventful year in Eritrea history  is close to an end. In the meantime, I wish you all a  happy new year.

Bet-Ghiogis

Once in this jungle

And a resort site

Where the young lovers

Passed their silent nights

While listening

To romantic melodies

Without disturbing

By the howl

Of  passing dogs

A mid a dim light

Of the fiat car

That one could

See from afar

In wonder.....

As the couples kissing

And soothing  each other

By saying, " Non piangi....

Mi fa stare con te

Cinque minuti ancora

Solo per la questa sera!"

From down to nightfall

Sitting and studying

Under the very tall tree

Whose thick leaves

Like a parasol

Overshadowed me.

The stingy ants

Under my lap

Waking me up

After a short nap.

It is hard to tell

The Chameleon is around

Unless it opens

The fearful mouth.

So is the grasshopper

Which you cannot see

In your naked eyes

Before it abruptly flies.

The colorful humming bird

Like a rainbow in the sky

Whose sharp beak

As long as a straw

Smacking and sacking

A sweet juice

From the buds

Of blooming flowers.

At the top in a  vigil

Full of shrill

The crow spies

Under watchful eyes.

But the dummy owl

Round as a bowl

With its piercing eyes

Neither stirs nor flies.

The gray pigeon in pair

Flying together

Before confining to their nest

While hatching their eggs.

The prudent and lonely parrot

Of color....

Green and red

Flies quickly

At the sudden sight

Of sly steps.

For all these...

This bushy...

Is still without king

Of course, the eagle

Which lives on meat.

But now, I am sad

To see Bet-Ghiorgis

The cleared jungle

And quite plane

As Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Now or never...

Let us restore it a new

By planting beautiful trees

So that our migrated birds

Could have a place to live

Once they are returned

To their homeland

In peace.............

-Haile

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