Leonell EchaReview: “ArMiNNa” By Decipher J. Liman
The popular Joseph “Decipher” Liman is famous for his ability to mix Hausa in his poems with very humorous and beautiful puns and word plays. The multiple award winning poet is also an exco of ANA Jos chapter.
Arminna is a humorous poem about childhood love that had grown. It tells the story of a quiet boy who was in love with Arminna ever since they were kids but couldn’t express it. The boy’s love for Arminna continued to grow until he couldn’t hold it anymore,and had to tell her about how he truly felt about her.
The poem begins as thus;
“Arminna, your name he called
‘Here is the other poem,
Arminna and the other poems’
In the accent of my friend Hassan”
His friend Hassan who was Hausa obviously replaced the “th” sounds with “z” and the “p” sounds with”f”, making it sound like;
“Here is za azer foem
Arminna and za azer foems.”
Aside humour, the poem is also very descriptive with good use of metaphors and similes which had made the poem colorful, eg:
“That boy with a morning eye like gazelle,”
The poem at the end became somewhat confusing, when the boy said
“But Arminna, Arminna, that boy with the quiet eye was me,
And this is the other poem”
It is unclear what the other poem is.
Younglan Louis
