Artist Statement:

(We are very happy to be able to participate in this art charity project. To all the staff who gave us this great opportunity we are extremely grateful. Our work has been created with characters from different alphabets that are used somewhere in the world. It is likely that characters that are foreign to you appear as simply patterns in black, however each and every character has meaning and a long history attached to it. It takes so many years of blood, sweat and tears to reach each character’s current form, and so many different characters have disappeared through the ages. When we approached the work, we realized the characters are the hope to communicate to others, the will to connect the past to the future, and of civilization. This project is a great opportunity to enjoy and appreciate the strength of art, and for many people, a good chance to learn of other people’s cultures. We hope that peaceful dialogues can be achieved among civilizations through soccer and art to name but a few, in South Africa and indeed all over the world.)

HUMAN LESSON  - Dai Hirose – Japan

When a mother zebra bears her baby,

She faces this new life alone,

Somewhere in the quiet savanna.

All that a father zebra can do is

Keep his eyes on her while practising back kicking.

When a mother penguin lays her egg,

She faces this new life alone,

On the thick ice shelf. 

All that a father penguin can do is  

Protect her from blizzards. 

When a mother hawk lays her eggs,

She faces this new life alone,

In a nest, in a tall tree.

All that a father hawk can do is

Supervise from the sky.

When a mother cat bears her babies,

She faces these new lives alone,

In the vacant lot next to my house. 

All that a father cat can do is  

Catch mice for presents.  

But  

When a human mother bears her baby, 

She can’t give birth without the help of others. 

Doctors, nurses, midwives, a lot of people. 

Perhaps it is possible, but almost all human mothers don’t do that. 

One fine day, humans lost their ability to bear babies alone.

Maybe that’s God’s present to us.

It made our existence, one which isn’t able to live without helping each other 

Humans became humans. 

When a human mother bears her baby, 

She faces this new life with a lot of people.

Breathing in, in, out. 

All that a human father can do is  

Clasp her hands with real concern.

So, strain your ears,

You can hear somebody’s first cry from somewhere in the world.