Written piece
A Line That Refuses to Break/Urudodo rwanze gucika
TWIRINGIRIMANA Eric
Rwanda
About this piece
Original
“Ni igitekerezo ku buhungiro, ku ndangamuntu no ku kwihangana. Kigaragaza ubuzima buba hagati y’ukwibuka n’igihugu cy’amavuko, gitwara ‘urugo’ binyuze mu majwi, umuryango n’icyizere. Ni urudodo rw’ubuzima rwambukiranya imipaka, rudacika kandi rukomeza.”
English translation
A reflection on displacement, identity, and resilience. It follows a life between memory and homeland, carrying home through voices, family, and hope. A thread of survival stretched across borders, unbroken and enduring.
Navukiye aho amakarita atinda gusobanura, hagati y’igihugu cy’amavuko n’icyibutso.
Si ingendo zose zibihitamo. Hari izitangira mu gahinda, zigasobanukirwa no guhumeka mu kutamenya.
Nkomoka mu misozi yibuka, aho umuyaga utwara inkuru zirusha imipaka ubusaza, n’aho guceceka bivuga ururimi rw’ubuzima bwo kwihangana. Nitwaje urugo rudafite inkuta, ahubwo amagambo n’amajwi, imbaraga zituje za mama, kwihangana kudacika k’umuryango wanjye, n’umudiho w’ahashize tukiri kwibuka, Twamaze igihe dutegereje, mu nzu dutijwe, mu minsi isaba ibirenze ibyo itanga.
Ariko kandi, nk’uko umuseke uva ku misozi igihumbi, duhora twongera kubaho.
Dufite ikintu isi itabasha kudutwara: ubutwari bukomeye bwo kwizera.
Uyu n'umurongo wanjye udashushanyijwe mu buzima bworoshye, ahubwo wacukuwe mu guhangana no kubaho.
Ni urudodo rwambukiranya imipaka, rutwaye kwibuka, rutwaye icyubahiro, rudacika kandi rukomeza kuba.
English translation
I was born where maps hesitate between a homeland and a memory. Not all journeys are chosen. Some begin in loss and learn to breathe within uncertainty. I come from hills that remember, where the wind carries stories older than borders, and silence speaks the language of endurance. I carry a home without walls only words and voices: my mother’s quiet strength, my family’s unwavering resilience, and the rhythm of a past we still hold in memory. We have lived in waiting, in borrowed shelter, in days that ask more than they give. Yet, like dawn rising over a thousand hills, we continue to rise.
There is something the world cannot take from us; the deep courage to believe.
This is my thread unshaped by comfort, but carved through struggle and survival. A thread that crosses borders, carrying memory, dignity, and continuity unbroken, and still becoming.