Somali President Jaalle Maxamed Siyaad Barre

Struggle for Somali Script
 
I am a bewildered student
Lost in confusion with four books
Haunted by the teacher's cane
Learning other people's languages
From my generation I have lagged
The boys I bettered boast to me
Of their written languages
O Father of my children
My pen weeps and I shed tears
Tell me now what to learn
Tell me now!
 
Come together it's lid
Come hither good news is here
It's the good day we opened our eyes
A day unforgettable in history
 
Our language is to be written
It's to have a script
This has been announced today
 
We must support our Father Siyaad
And indeed the Revolution
And discard foreign languages
 
From us this is a notice
For all the world to hear
To him who hates our language
Who does not want it to be written
And who thought it impossible
For it to be written
See the way we read it
See how literacy is spread
Watch the fruits of the Revolution
And the literacy campaign
 
We say with emphasis
Let imperialism lose hope
Let the afminishar
(one with the serrated teeth; i.e., a spreader of rumours)
follow suit
Aas far as we say
With all our ability
We have belief and confidence
In the goal of the caravan
Never to retract is our pledge