A Collection of Poems: To Laokein B.

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

You will haunt for a long time the restless nights of

These soul dealers

These arms dealers

These tear dealers

Treacherous sort of mangy bitches

Those who sold you

For a skew of lamb on the grill

For a gulp of warm bitter beer

Every stormy night, they will grow a belly heavy with shame

Every warm night they will carry a liver heavy with pus

Every silent night, weevils will pierce their stomachs

Every night of revival they will bear an enormous spleen soaked, bursting, drowned

Treacherous, viscous-eyed chameleons, hyenas with their

tails between their legs

Fat they will be fat and greasy from the grease of their feasts

And then some day their legs heavy with gout

Will not carry them anymore

I know you are manure at the foot of the hibiscus

You weave on the distaff the aurora borealis

For the wedding of the morning star

When the peasant´s toe will no longer stumble on the stump of the néré

When the shepherd´s foot will no longer shelter the thorn of the soapwort

When the hippopotamus saber teeth will no longer split the canoe paddler

(a friend and leader of the resistance murdered by government´s soldiers)

Koulsy Lamko (born 1959) Chad

Translated by Agnes Merat

A Collection of Poems