Cilmi Boodhari: The Prophet of Love
(Somali girl playing with seashells at Berbera Beach) At times I made light of it And I was free. Then suddenly I was shown her in a vision And she was radiant in hue, like a lighted lantern. Surely she must have been imprinted on my heart How else could I be so intoxicated with her? Inside my breast she tick-tocks to me like a watch At night when I sleep she comes to sport with me But at early dawn she leaves At turns into a rising pillar of dust (A Vision - Cilmi Boodhari) Cilmi Ismacil Liban was born around 1910 in a border region nestled between Ethiopia and Somalia - which was under British Colonial Rule at the time; hence his nickname "Boodhari" which is a neologism of the English word "Border". Not much of his childhood or adolescence is documented, the limitations of Somali historiography is that it's one of oral traditions, so like many oratorical renditions the fat has been trimmed unfortunately. We do know however that in 1931 as
