Language and its sound in ‘Allayl Dumay’ by Raage Ugaas Warfaa

In this article I present a detailed analysis of a famous poem by Raage Ugaas Warfaa. Raage, who lived in the nineteenth century, is acknowedged as one of the greatest poets of all time among the Somalis. A good number of his poems have been passed down over the years and in more recent decades have been written down. I consider here one of his most famous gabay poems. It is a lament, calaacal in Somali, which was prompted by Raage’s fiancée being married to another man when he had been away for some time after the initial marriage agreement had been made. The poem is very widely known and appreciated and one of my main aims here is to show why this is so. In the analysis I outline grammatical aspects of the poem with a view to providing a study of some of the interesting linguistic features. Then, in the main part, I look at the images and language used and, in particular, consider the way sound, both words related to sound and the actual use of sound in the poem relate to its message and to the idea of subjectivity.