This essay looks at a recently translated poem, “Ntwa ea Jeremane 1914”, written by BM Khaketla, as a lens through which to approach the feelings and attitudes of people from Lesotho towards the world wars. A poem is sometimes described as a gathering of spoken or written words, arranged in such a way that it evokes an intense imaginative alertness around an issue, an emotion or an experience. Investigations into the participation of black South Africans in the world wars mainly rest on official archival documentation, with attention focused on the racial, socio-economic context and the post-war treatment of soldiers. Distinction is seldom made between black South Africans and those from Lesotho (or Swaziland or Botswana) as they were all drafted under the South African contingents. There has been little discussion in South African art about why black people joined the Allied forces during the world wars, with the prominence of the sinking of the SS Mendi a wonderful exception as it reverberates in SEK Mqhayi's famous poem, “Ukutshona kuka Mendi”, as well as Fred Khumalo's recent novel, Dancing the Death Drill (2017). The visual artist William Kentridge has also commemorated the death of very large numbers of black Africans in the First World War in his powerful exhibition, The Head and the Load. This article explores the expression of emotions and conclusions about the world wars in a poem by Khaketla, as well as the techniques he uses to carry these across larger vistas.

这篇文章着眼于最近翻译的一首诗，“ Ntwa ea Jeremane1914”，由 BM Khaketla 撰写，作为一个镜头，通过它来了解莱索托人民对世界大战的感受和态度。一首诗有时被描述为口头或书面文字的集合，其排列方式可以唤起人们对某个问题、一种情感或一种经历的强烈想象和警觉。对南非黑人参与世界大战的调查主要依靠官方档案文件，重点关注种族、社会经济背景和战后士兵的待遇。很少区分南非黑人和莱索托（或斯威士兰或博茨瓦纳）的黑人，因为他们都是在南非特遣队下征召的。南非艺术界很少讨论为什么黑人在世界大战期间加入盟军，Ukutshona kuka Mendi ”，以及 Fred Khumalo 最近的小说，Dancing the Death Drill (2017)。视觉艺术家威廉·肯特里奇 (William Kentridge) 还在其强有力的展览《头与担》( The Head and the Load) 中纪念了第一次世界大战中大量非洲黑人的死亡。本文探讨了 Khaketla 的一首诗中关于世界大战的情绪和结论的表达，以及他用来将这些情绪和结论带到更大视野的技巧。