Venice masks

Saturday, 30 April 2022

Say to the Tomb - Bios Diallo

And
Say to the tomb, without pride
Here the poem ends
Here identities, prayers bleed
And, look
Here also the nation is reborn

And since a country has but one language
That of its future, of its people
            I will brandish my own
                        Though full of holes

And since we won’t exile ourselves
Or harm our land
I will be, for my nation
The eternal shepherd.

Bios Diallo (born 1966) Mauritania
Translated by Emma Ramadan

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