Mekhi Goffigan-Mercer

Wasiyya Sipikiyya

Ta'ala ina rokonka ranar da zan cika

Kasa in cika Allah cikin daki na

Gaban duk iyali na da 'ya'ya da 'yan'uwa

Allah ina rokon ka sai a gidana

Idan na cika yan'uwa na gaya muku

Da kun ji cikawata ku taru gidana

Idan har da rana abin yazo ko cikin dare

Batun jinkiri kar dai ya faru wurina

Idan anyi sallah an gama kar a dakata

A dauka kawai hanyar zuwa kabarina

Idan anka je da zuwa a sani ciki kawai

Cikin hankali domin tuno lamarina

Kasar kabarin kuma kar a ware daban-daban

A turo gaba daya duk ta watsu a kaina

Idan aka kare gini da an tashi an gama

Ku koma wajen harkarku ya jama'ata

Batun sadakar Uku, ko Bakwai, ko ta Arba'in

Kaza shekara wallahi babu ruwana

Irin masu kukan nan da ihu da razana

Don Allah na roke ku kar kuyi kaina

Ina tausayin ku kwarai zuwa gun jana'iza

Kaza wahalar tafiya hakan kabarina

Kaza wahalar wanka da dauko ni don zuwa

Cikin makara tafiya zuwa karshe na

Hakika a rannan da da ikon da zan iya

Ya sa tausayin a wajen dukan jama'ana

Anan zan tsaya domin wasiyarmu ta tsaya

Mudi Spikin ne uba ga Amina

–Alhaji Mudi Sipikin

Sipikiyya Will

Dear God,

When my time comes,

Let me die in peace—my bedroom

Surround me by the ones I love

And perish in my home

When I’m gone, come visit,

Night or day Im expecting you

Pray for me and bring me to the land of the dead

Bury me fast, but slow enough that the memories of me dont pass too quick

Dont be filled with grief

Cover me with the natural earth

And once my tomb is set

Return to your lifes

Don’t let your grief stop your life

This is my will and I’ve thought about it for years

I am Mudi Sipikin

Father of Amina

Follow this with the thought of me.

–Translated from Hausa by Mekhi Goffigan-Mercer

Sipikin’s Will

In the name of God

When I pass,

Let me pass in my home

In my own room

Surrounded by my children and family

To my family

The moment you hear of my death

Come to my house. Immediately.

Whether it is day or night do not delay

Pray for my father

Then take me to the cemetery without waiting

Once you arrive

Bury me at once

Do it with care. Do it with respect

Think of me but do not let my death linger in your head

Use only one type of soil.

Do not mix it

Let my body rest in one earth

When the tombstone is placed

Everyone should return to their business

–Translated from Hausa by Mekhi Goffigan-Mercer

Experience

(An erasure of my interview with Robin Goffigan)

I only speak English that I learned in my learning here 

Boston, Massachusetts

so I would say it's regular

if I go further enough back to my family tree 

some of my ancestors actually spoke

Nigerian

how these languages are connected to our cultures 

I would say it's connected because we are black Americans

but they say we all come from Africa

So I would assume that the language is coming from the African culture.

I don't know, the answer to that question 

because as far as I know 

everybody in my family speaks English

And if they happen to pick up a second language

 maybe it was from their spouse or one of their children

or learning it from school. 

–Mekhi Goffigan-Mercer

Translator’s Statement

Alahi Mudi Sipkin, born Mahmud Muhammad in the Darma quarter of Kano in northern Nigeria, was a prominent figure in Hausa poetry and politics. He was a founding member of the radical Northern Elements Progressive Union, joined in 1950. Sipikin used his voice, both poetic and public, to combat social injustice. In his life he was speaking out against colonial and political power. You could find him writing and performing in Hausa. Sipikin produced over 300 poems, keeping the same theme of writing for politics. His most famous work ended up being “Wasiyya Sipikiyya,” made in 1958. Currently, it remains celebrated for its emotional clarity and cultural expression. (Bala Garba)

For the first part of translating, we had to start with the title. The title of the poem “Wasiyya Spipikiyya” directly translates to, “Spikin’s Will.” The Sipikiyya part of the title stems from his name, Sipikin; It's said that the way Shakespeare made his own word, the Hausa poet had done the same and made his own word. () The format of the poem takes the form of a spoken will, through which he explores his personal vulnerability about death. It shows Sipikin’s deep connection to his religion and his deep concern for death. When the speaker asks to not be mourned, it shows his connection and care for the living.

The poem is structured as a direct message to God, his family, and his community. And this creates the rhythm of the message being directed in the poem to prominent people in his life. The speaker, in the poem, is humble with repeated instructions of his burial process. I first encountered this poem through my teacher, Eric Fishman. Although I don’t have a personal connection to the poet Mudi Sipikin or his poem, working through it helps me understand the values of other cultures. I now understand more about peoples thoughts on death.

Translating “Wasiyya Sipikiyya” was a careful and meaningful process. I worked with Sada Malumfashi, a writer and translator from northern Nigeria who is deeply familiar with the Hausa language. Our meeting ended up taking two weeks longer to set up than expected because of some issues with time,  but it turned out better than I expected. Sada was kind, patient, and thorough. He helped me create a literal English version of the original poem, and that draft already felt poetic in its own right. It made me realize that good translation isn’t about rewriting or making something fancy, it’s about translating the message accurately while keeping its virtues.

I created two versions of the poem in English, each focusing on a different key feature. The first version I created, titled “Sipikyya Will,” was centered on that emotional vulnerability Sipikin was showing us. In that translation i tried to recreate and keep the gentle feeling like the original. For example the line, “bury me fast, but slow enough that the memories of me don’t pass too quick,” to show his role as just not someone passing his will, but as a father and the love he has curated for his family overtime. When translating that line I knew I wanted to make it heartfelt but also serious.

For my second version of the poem by Sipikin, titled Sipikin’s Will, I wanted to represent the focus more on the monotone feeling of the poem. To keep the poem’s cultural based tone by keeping the repetition of the commanding style shown in the original poem. This version speaks more about the cultural aspect of death in Islamic culture.

The hardest part of this process was understanding that not everything can be translated. Some emotional or cultural meanings just don’t carry over in the same way it can in English. This challenge made me more mindful of the wording that I choose to use in English. While dealing with the hardest part of translation, I realized that my idea of a direct or literal translation shifted. To make a good literal translation it doesn’t have to be stiff or null. My translation mentor showed me that there could be way more descriptive translations depending on the wording used in English. While studying for this project, I came upon two quotes that helped pave my way to think about translations. In a article about supporting language learning it asserted that, “Technology too can play a part. Digital archives, online courses, and AI-driven tools offer new ways to document and teach endangered languages.” While working with my translator I realized, In America, it’s not everyday you find someone speaking a language other than English. Trying to go out and find a professional Hausa translator is difficult, but with technology getting help with translation is easier than ever. My second quote comes from the Antena language justice collaborative, “Who we choose to translate is political. How we choose to translate is political” This has shown me that anything that I choose to keep and remove is all up to me, and I could be erasing history. When translating, erasing a history is political because we could be getting rid of some views. I was seeing this while writing my two interpretive translations, choosing how I was going to separate two key features of the poem.

To interview my family member about my heritage was calm and peaceful. I already knew what I was going into and I wasn’t expecting anything big to be brought forth by my interviewee—my mom. It remind me how most people in my family only speak English, and how thats just been normal for us. Even though we dont speak our cultural languages anymore, I know that that theres a deeper story behind what we do and don’t know.

When I created the erasure poem, I made my choices with specific thoughts in my mind. The feeling of being asked “What are you?,” a question I’ve been asked before, doesn’t always feel great. It makes me feel as if my history is unknown therefore unimportant. The poem, made from my intervene reflects my feeling of confusion and that void that stands between me and my cultural language. I kept the lines from my interview that show the identity of me the person writing or the person being interviewed and the unknowingness that they feel about their heritage.

Works Cited

Ali, Richard. “Spikin’s Letter - Poetry Translation Centre.” Poetry Translation Centre, 25 July 2024, www.poetrytranslation.org/poem/spikins-letter/. Accessed 10 June 2025.

Bala Garba, Ismail. IFRA Special Research Issue Vol. 2. French Institute for Research, 1 Jan. 2006. Accessed 10 June 2025.

Tabriz, Shams e. “Konya Shamsrumi.” Konya Shamsrumi, 15 May 2018, shamsrumi.org/heart-of-poetry-alhaji-mudi-sipikins-wasiyya-sipikiyya-by-ismail-bala/. Accessed 11 June 2025.