| Wissam Hissi is a Lebanese Sierra Leonean. He attended St. Anthony Primary School and St. Edward's Secondary School, and was the only Lebanese in the Sierra Leone Boy Scouts, 8th Freetown Troop, St. Edward's Boy Scouts. He writes: "I was born in Bo and raised in Freetown (with all my love to all Edwardians) till I was 21. The war took me away like many others out of my homeland, but one day I will be back for my Queen of Palms." |
Freetown
The land of Freetown,
where I was born,
is a garden full of flowers,
with magic charm.
A sky always blue
is a canopy over it,
and sweet lullabies
sing the waves at its feet.
When on its shores the settlers arrived,
they cried, seized with admiration:
Oh! Oh! Oh!
This is the pretty land
I'm looking for;
Freetown is the daughter,
born from the sea and the sun.
My Old Freetown
In my Old Freetown, many dreams I forged in my
childhood years
My first illusion, and my grief of love are memories of the soul
One afternoon I departed for a foreign nation, that's how destiny would
have it
But my heart remained at the seas, of my Old Freetown.
Goodbye Goodbye
My dear Freetown (land of my love)
Goodbye Goodbye
Queen of the Sea (my Queen of the Palms)
I'm leaving…..I'm leaving now!
But someday I'll return
To search for my love
To dream once again
In my Old Freetown.
But time passed me by, and destiny fooled my terrible nostalgia.
And I could not return to my Freetown of yesterday, little piece of my
soul.
My hair turned white, my life is about to leave, death is upon me.
I do not want to die so far away from you, Sierra Leone of my soul!