To Laokein B. - Koulsy Lamko

Every night when the storm blows down sun-dried brick

houses and huts

Every warm night when men are at the mercy of mosquitoes

Every silent night that will echo the howl of the owl

Every night when the revival of the soil will grow its cotyledon

The Persian Bride - Elizabeta Bakovska

You speak to me in a language I don't understand.
Your eyes, a blue we don't have,
called me out of the many
pale women's faces there in Susa.

Hiccups - Léon Damas

I gulp down seven drinks of water
several times a day
and all in vain
instinctively
like the criminal to the crime
my childhood returns
in a rousing fit of hiccups

It's the Dream - Olav H. Hauge

It’s the dream we carry in secret
that something miraculous will happen,

All Passion Concluded - Mirta Rosenberg

Caprices of light
through the top chink
of the shutters
                         and the heat,
the cold like lime and the sun,

My God - Nyabuoy Gatbel

My God is not a he or she.
My God is not a gender but a spirit.

Snow, Electricity - Luis Chaves

Clothes out to dry
and those clouds.

There’s a new dog
who follows me everywhere
I go. He is here now,
under the table. When it’s storming
out he flattens himself onto the floor and will not be moved.

How to Fall in Love with an African City - Gbenga Adesina

In time, you too will come to learn dear friend, the soft rustle,
Soft whoosh of affection for a city like a lover like a love song: Nairobi, Abuja, Dakar
throbbing in your ribs: Accra, Harare, Port Novo, carving a place for themselves, to nestle
In spite of yourself in the jar
of things you call loved.

In Your Language - Grigore Vieru

Everybody giggles
In the same old language,
Everybody whimpers
In the same old tongue.

No father - Pope Urban VIII

Brave Saint, no blandishments of earth
Availed to draw thee from God's love;

Thank You for Being a Woman - Jémima Fiadjoe-Prince Agbodjan

Thank you for being a woman
For having been born
To know the pain of childbirth;

My beautiful country - Seshie Mauriko

Oh, you beautiful country,
country between sea and territory: I love you.

In the bird’s long silence I step into the day - Shrinivási

In the bird’s long silence I step into the day
like palm trees their song rustles every which way
clearing the air of a bloody past that once held sway

Fatherland - Alykul Osmonov

Dress warmer, the road with ice and snow is spread
The winter's severe, the blizzard howls at hand
Your ice chill I take upon my own head
By the road I will wait, stop awhile, my Fatherland!

Where are you? - Aleksa Šantic

When pearls of dew at night are strewn
On meadow flowers in early bloom,
My bosom starts a longing tune:
“Where are you, where are you?”

Everyday Lament - Augustin Tin Ujević

How hard it is to be weak,
How hard it is to be alone,
And to be old, yet young!

there is nothing worse - Alain Mabanckou

there is nothing worse
than the grief of black-rhun palms
the sleep of swamps
the silence of passerines

Letter to the Prime Minister - Bhanubhakta Acharya

Everyday I see kind authorities and they get rid of my worries.
I am at peace and at night I watch dances for free.
I do what my friends - mosquitoes, fleas, and bedbugs - say:
the mosquitoes sing and the ticks dance, I watch their play.

A woman is alone - Aída Cartagena Portalatín

A woman is alone.
Alone with her stature. With her open eyes. With her open arms. With her heart open like a wide silence.

To Withstand Evil - Mila Haugová

Alfa lives on. She sleeps less.
She hardly dreams. She loves much more.
She blooms in the wastefulness of autumn.
Her sight weakens.

Date Palm Trinity - Khaled Mattawa

Today the date palms were pruned,
the branches taken before the fruit ripened,
before sweetness littered the sidewalks.

The Central African Republic - Aimée Yangbadji

Here in CAR, we speak french and the national language which is Sango

Taw Khuarj ceremony - a royal poet of the Lane Xang Dynasty

The highest Then prince Laan Kaap Kham Vaa
Presented himself and spoke before his father,
Then Luang, who afterwards gave orders
To bedeck the mightiest elephants with trappings of gold.

The nature of Man - Alain de L'Isle

In this world each mortal creature
      Shows our life in form and feature,
      From the very dawn of birth;
Even as in a mirror showeth
      How the man appeareth, groweth,
      And his sad return to earth.

Only Mothers will Embrace Sorrows - U Sam Oeur

I wade through solitude
to the cottage where we used to
gather to drink rice wine,
enjoying false peace.
I sit under the same palm-leaf roof,
gaze at your chairs
but see no one,
hear only your laughs.

Kawthar: Princess of Mali - Aïda Touré

O Fountain of Immanence,
a gem from the Throne itself,
laid on the two hemispheres
of the Seen and the Unseen,
mystery dancing upon the Waters
of Wisdom from ancient Arabia to Mali,

Nirat Phu Khao Thong - Sunthorn Phu

Near to, I could smell the King's scent,
Sweetly rend'ring the air at hand:
The King died, tasteless became the land
He died, and scentless my own fate.