Birago Diop's Vanity

 

Coins in a jar- pics from Daviescoin

If we tell, gently, gently

All that we shall one day have to tell, Who then will hear our voices withoutlaughter,

Sad complaining voices of beggars Who indeed will hear them withoutlaughter?

If we cry roughly of our torments Ever increasing from the start of things What eyes will watch our large mouths Shaped by the laughter of big children What eyes will watch our large mouth?

What hearts will listen to our clamoring?

What ear to our pitiful anger Which grows in us like a tumor

In the black depth of our plaintive throats?

When our Dead comes with their Dead

When they have spoken to us in their clumsyvoices; Just as our ears were deaf

To their cries, to their wild appeals Just as our ears weredeaf

They have left on the earth their cries, In the air, on the water,

where they have traced their signs for us blind deaf and unworthy Sons Who see nothing of what they have made

In the air, on the water, where they have traced their signs

And since we did not understand the dead Since we have never listened to their cries If we weep, gently, gently

If we cry roughly to our torments What heart will listen to our clamoring,

What ear to our sobbing hearts?