As we sat around the fire
Mixing our warmth with hunger
Gogo Chawinga took charge of lessons
Lessons that taught us masamu in simple calculations
And we listened with eager on his pasionate lecture
And we learned that
Nsima plus beans adds up to unga
Chambo and rice adds up to manoninoni
Manoninoni and mkute adds to chimbara
Chimbara and bwenga adds to excitement
Excitement and foodlessness adds up to cryingly counting mapaso
Counting mapaso and nothing adds up to hunger
Hunger and minus mgayiwa adds to up gwangwangwa
The lesson was over before we recounted the sum of all
When Gogo Chawinga went to bed
We started practising by counting stars
After counting stars it was ufa
After counting ufa it was beans
After counting beans it was excitement
And counting excitement in dreams it was chiliro
Chiliro that we were feasting in dreams
And by the time we woke up
All stars had disappeared
All mgayiwa had disappeared
All manoninoni had vanished
Vanished in thin air with mkute wa nganga
By the time we added up our calculations
We came up with a huge figure in totall
The sum of it was gwangwangwa in total
Alas ! What a fantansy mathematical excercise.
