Gleaning Groundnuts (Sinkpaam yiisika)

When the sun is high up, 
And the adults are busy with many things,
With our chores hurriedly done or abandoned, 
We steal away with our little hoes 
Wandering far into the farmlands 
To dig along the ridges in the fields 
And glean what we may or must, 
For pleasure or necessity! 
The pleasure being in fields abandoned, 
When the rains stopped too early. 
Or the yield is adjudged to be poor; 
And the farmer is discouraged; 
Then happily we come into our own, 
For here there is great reward. 

But alas! When hunger lays siege, 
And our mothers are too busy or helpless, 
Our insatiable appetites are awakened.
Then rich reward or not we come 
And dig and scatter and peer at the earth 
Like the fowls search for woodworm 
In the shrubbery at home. 
For any and every excuse 
We are glad to grab a hoe and can 
And head into the deserted fields 
Where we dig and search and dig, 
For the nuts the hard ground holds, 
Returning home with full bellies, 
Even to face the wrath of our parents 
Over the abandoned chores.