This essay presents some issues pertinent to the translation of Somali poetry. It considers issues relating to three levels: a) the translation of Somali poetry; b) the translation of specific genres of Somali poetry; c) the translation of individual poems within a particular genre. Detailed analysis of the author's own translation of two poems for a volume of Modern Poetry in Translation form the core of the discussion. Although it is not a theoretical discussion, it presents issues which are of wider interest. The translation of oral and/or aurally experienced poetry, is one such issue. Also, in Somali society, poetry has a status different from that of poetry in present day Western Europe; the author looks how the translator negotiates the audience's differing expectations of poetry.