Read - Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo

Make no sound, do not speak:
off to explore a forest, eyes, heart,
mind, dreams . . .

Secret forest; yet you can touch this forest
with your hands.

Forest astir with stillness,
forest where the bird is gone, the bird to catch,
catch in a trap and make him sing
or make him cry.

Make him sing or make him cry
and tell the place where he was hatched.

Forest. Bird.
Secret forest, bird hidden
in your hands.

---

Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo  (1901 - 1937) Madagascar
Translated by John Reed and Clive Wake
Source: B. Morrison website