I won’t bow my head for anyone - Stephen Ciec Lam

My brown ox has grown old like Wunbiel’s ox.

This dark ox has grown old like Wunbiel’s ox,

like the brown ox of my grandfather,

like Luanglei’s ox.

The brown ox has grown old indeed.

Cuol Deang and Cuol Lul, the land went bad

because there were no brave men.

The ox cries through the moonless night,

the black ox, who bawls every day

when some are taken, crying out

because so many are taken.

Before the foreigners came,

my family was never herded into a barn,

The Lou were never herded into a barn.

Nyadak Yak’s family and her brother Cotjiok,

Nyadak and her brother Diu Yak—

no man ever stood up to them.

But now their talk is of sick cows

and the government.

I speak for the Nuer who keep their heads up.

I speak for the Lou who keep their heads up.

lt’s the truth, by Jak, my sister’s big ox

whose glossy hide shines against the compound,

Nyaluak Thiyang.

I won’t bow my head for anyone.

Oh, bull spotted black, oh, spotted bull.

Let me speak for the Nuer.

Let me speak for the Nuer who decide.

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Stephen Ciec Lam (20th century) Sudan

Translated by Terese Svoboda

Source: Sudan Open Archive: Cleaned the Crocodile's Teeth, Translated by Terese Svoboda, Greenfield Review Press, 1985