the Jews from Ethiopia

CALL OF THE FALASHA

You're wondering how old I am
Touch my skin, brittle as ash spray
Do I remind you of Pharaoh's youngest son
Or rather of his mummified self?
Look into my eyes for soon they will turn up
Like the countless pairs of eyes that have nothing more to tell
And let not the creaking of my bones distract you
There beyond the haze lie the mountains of Seimen,
Gondar and Tigray, our ancestral home
Look deep into those eyes
My story goes back almost 3000 years
It was during the reign of King Solomon
Having sailed the Red Sea and walked under the buming sun of Egypt
We reached this land of gold, land of the fabled peacocks
You are staring at my stomach
Then feel how bloated it is, the calabash has dried up
Emptying itself of illusions
Look back into my eyes
I shall not rejoin the thousands of sisters and brothers
Whose blood courses again through Zion's arteries
Poisoning, some say, the blood of Palestine
There is a rainbow now across the sky
At last the soul of the etemal stranger has been released
And like David, speaking to the Lord before bis death,
The ageless Falasha murmured "But who am I and what is my people
For we are strangers before Thee, and sojoumers
As were all our fathers, our days on earth are as a shadow
And there is none abiding."