Polyphony Marimba - Kutambura Kwavo Lyrics

Over and over she sang, kutambura kwavo (The suffering in the people)

Is suffering a permanent aspect of life
Or is there a way to live free of suffering
In humble prayer I open my mind for the answer

The suffering in the people is not an economic problem
Nor political, nor religious, nor a scientific problem
It is a problem of identity
Who am I?

Am I a little pile of dust and water, seeking pleasure and avoiding pain?
Am I a short-lived mind doomed to suffer and die?
With fleeting moments of joy between long periods of struggle?
Love found then lost?
What am I?

Am I spirit? Am I love unbound? Am I not separate?
Is the reality in me one with the reality in you?
The teacher of God says: "Love, which created me, is what I am"

If I experience myself thus, if everyone realized their true nature
And if we really are love, indivisible, immortal, all one
Only appearing separate in a dreamlike delusion, how would we behave?

Kutambura kwavo

The seer of reality says
"When you discover your real being, your life becomes love in action
Meeting with obstacles and overcoming them
Initially frustrated, ultimately victorious"

Holy Spirit of God, teach me what is real
That my own suffering, and all misery in everyone, may come to an end
If I am your child, safe in your arms, and there is no love but Your own
And all of love is Yours, then is war no more
We could not conceive of using technology in the service of organized hatred
Nor for any harmful purposes

Oppression, and the entire hierarchy of worldly power
The unfair distribution of wealth and resources
Between individuals and between nations
Would evaporate as mists before the sun
The true voice says: "There is enough for all, provided all share"

Kutambura kwavo

When I was a child I played selfish games with dangerous toys
When I grew up and realized my true nature, I put away childish things
"The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me
Apparently two, really one, seeks unity, and that is love"
Thus sayeth one who knows

Take me back, take me way, way back
Before my forefathers arrived on African and North American shores
Take me to the southern African lands
Where a people known as the Shona sounded their mbira in healing ceremony
The songs composed to bridge the living and the dead
To move the body and clear the head
Gifted by spirit and lovingly held by man
Are this day heard round and round the world

I thank you Shona ancestral spirits
Who teach us healing notes of beauty
Who share energizing rhythms, leading my mind to spiritual contemplation
Thank you for this song

Lord, help me realize my purpose in life
Help me to know the purpose of this music
So lovingly given to those who first sounded these healing tones
May the reality and power of love imbue each note
With redemption, magnificent enough to inspire us
To find another way to live
May we gratefully receive the balm
You offer our aching hearts and our bewildered minds
To heal the suffering in the people once and for good

My we hear your voice, which assures us
"All shall be enlightened in the end
Not one soul shall be lost"

Amen