Sahel! Sa(y) Hel(lo)
Mother earth
Earth mother
We have fallen to earth
The man from Galilee keeps mum
A surge in perils, tsunamis
The gods are seeing red
The Sahel rises in you, in me
The Red Sea boils in you, in me
Nunavut is melting in you, in me
No taller than a pygmy, Annapurna
Grazes the asphalt head down
Ashamed and obstinate snail
The earth the sea
Earth mother
The world is dying
The man from Galilee awakens
His lips come alive
Attempt to surmount ramparts
The profound prayer erupts from the earth
To place a bit of green
Onto our stony hearts
In India an old legend persists
It says the man from Galilee escaped crucifixion
And spent his last seven years in Kashmir
Outside my mouth my words are already dead
Memory’s a graveyard
The lute player bursts into lament
He sings of the wandering caravan driver who didn’t
Bring enough food for his journey
Not one voice answered his wailing
The seed of his chant grew old wrinkles
Before you could say
He was there, he was gone.
What remains of our oldest forebears the reptiles
Who stretched themselves out to escape the primordial silt
Some folds, some features legible on the retina brain
We’ve been in on this for ages but don’t breathe a word
Every Being Is Unique
I’m a sponge
And I gorge myself on spring
Wherever I go my eyes catch the inhalation
of daffodils
Heaven is on earth and nowhere else
Through strange reasoning we refuse
to welcome it
My legs insist that I sit
You’re getting too old, son
Settle down here and write
Name the dawn once again
Jot down in your notepad
The freshly fallen stars
Sketch the jowls of love on your sweetheart’s
breast
Inscribe in your notebook these expressions
living soul
wandering time
without any fuss
skin of light
in lucidity there is light (lux)
four small pieces of bread
make a meal
The sun opens the inkwell to the day
The light steps over the same threshold every time
Shaking the edifice of night
The cock’s crow
The dawn’s smile
The mischievous grain of sand
That inexorably topples the big hourglass
As a child one sometimes confides
Their last requests on the spot
Promising to be
The faithful shadow of the blossoming almond tree
Every being is unique
In search of their epic word
Nancy Naomi Carlson’s translation of Khal Torabully’s Cargo Hold of Stars: Coolitude (Seagull) won the 2022 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Her second full-length poetry collection, as well as Delicates, her co-translation of Wendy Guerra, were noted in The New York Times. She serves as the Translations Editor for On the Seawall.
Abdourahman A. Waberi, born in Djibouti, is considered a major voice in African postcolonial studies. He has received a multitude of awards and honors, including a PEN France prize, and, most recently, a medal from the Académie française. Since 2012, he has been a Professor of French and Francophone Studies at George Washington University, Washington, DC.
