Fruits - Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo

You may choose
among the fruits of the perfumed season;
but this is what I will show you:
two plump mangos
where you may suck the sun melted within.

Rova Blues, My Queen's Palace - Voahanitriniaina Rabary-Andriamanday

The Queen's Palace of ancient times
has been renewed with christian rhymes;
And for the glory of new days,
Let's sing and shout as the Queen prays.

What is happening beneath the earth - Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo

What is happening beneath the earth
at the remote nadir?

Great Riches Do Not Fill the Heart (from Ibonia: Conception and Birth, part 1) - Anonymous

The Prince of the East, they say,

     was stirred to pay a visit to Skyfather.

He took his children with him:

Gray-Eyed Man, Young-Man-Worth-Six, Princess Like-a-Man,

     and his subjects, Many Cares and Many Close Ones.

Most bitter is the bite of hunger - Elie Rajaonarison

Most bitter is the bite of hunger

which awakens you in the morning

keeps you up at night

Zebu - Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo

Arched like the towns of Imerina

prominent on the hills,

or hewn from the living rock;

humped like the gables

sculpted by the moon on the earth,

look! The powerful bull—

Freedom - Elie Rajaonarison

You are spoken of

as if a streetwalker

on streets to nowhere

in city markets
so consciences may rest sleep

Song of a Young Girl - Flavien Ranaivo

Oaf
tlie young man who lives down there
beside the threshing floor for rice;
like two banana-roots
on either side the village ditch,

Oh Madagascar - Michael Parfait Andrianjaka

Oh Madagascar the holy
Big island next to Africa
The sea surrounds you
I love you, adore you, and will never deny you
Because you are so wonderful

Read - Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo

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