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

Source: Words Without Borders