Beauty is my song
My song is beauty
Beautiful people, beautiful places,
beautiful Zimbabwe!
Beauty is the mountain paradise of the Eastern Highlands
A mosaic undulating panorama
The epitome of diverse visual riches
A sensual metaphor of valleys, streams, waterfalls, and plateaus
The peaks of Inyangani and Chimanimani
Reaching up to the heavens like pilgrims paying homage to the gods
Mist shrouding them like a bridal veil
Vumba Botanical Gardens- forever the domain of subtropical flora
Boasting a unique collection of modern and prehistoric blooms
On stone-terraced bossoms
Burma Valley – a tropical anathema
Chinyamakwaramba – the hill that sat down
Chirinda- a primeval virgin forest of unspoilt jungle
Where the lianas tangle in glee
Lofty Pungwe, endless Mutarazi Falls –
A sing-song splendour
Plunging into the mesmerising Honde Valley and Pungwe Gorge
Beauty is my song
My song is beauty
Beautiful people, beautiful places,
Beautiful Zimbabwe!
Beauty is the story of my nation written on walls of stone
At Khame and Dhlodhlo ruins
Beauty is the mystery surrounding the ancient citadels of stone
Masvingo eDzimbabwe, Dzimba Dzamatombo,Dzimbabwe
Great Zimbabwe! The throne of royal kingdoms
Throbbing with the pulse of our present and past
Beauty is a hilarious song sung by
the shriek of a fish eagle
The shy laughing hyena
The hiss of a sly slithering snake
The towering giraffe, the trumpeting elephant
The graceful eland,the flamboyant kudu
The roaring lion, the lunging leopard
The bullying buffalo, the snorting rhino
Beauty is the baffling Zimbabwe sunset
Bathing everything in breath-taking glory
Beauty is the immense aquatic haven of Lake Kariba
Swelling with the legend of Nyaminyami
Beauty is Zimbabwe’s well-designed cities:
Accessible by the safest and most efficient transport networks
Mutare, sits cradled in a granite cage
Dappled by aloes, flamboyant and cycads
Harare, the city that never goes to sleep
City that sits in the sun, sparkling always, like a diamond
Bulawayo, the city of kings
Gweru, the heartbeat of the midlands
Kadoma, the city of gold and textiles!
Beauty is summed up in the colourful and majestic splendour
Of the Victoria Falls like the Great Salt Lake
A mammoth wonder of mist,spray and thunder
Mosi-oa-Tunya – the jewel that crowns our national heritage
Beauty is the tranquil hills of Matoposi
A natural gallery of granite boulders
Balancing in a frieze of miraculous wonder
Exquisite Bushman rock paintings decorating
the caves of Nswatugi,Bambata,Silozwane and Gulubahwe
Malindidzimu – the place of spirits!
Awed by the commanding stillness, and world view
The spirit of a wanderer found rest among these hills
Such beauty…
“the peacefulness of it all…”
“scenes so lovely…”
are fit to “… be gazed upon by angels in their flight!”
Beauty is my song
My song is beauty
Beautiful people, beautiful places,
beautiful Zimbabwe!
[Note: the words enclosed by quotation marks were spoken by Cecil John Rhodes himself. Even though he had the whole of southern Africa under his foot,he chose to be buried in Matoposi Hills.]