VANITY by BIRAGO DIOP

VANITY-        Birago Diop  (December 11, 1906 - November 10, 1989)

If we tell, gently, gently
All that we shall one day have to tell,
Who then will hear our voices without laughter, 
Sad complaining voices of beggars
Who indeed will hear them without laughter?
If we 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 clamouring?
What ear to our pitiful anger
Which grows in us like a tumour
In the black depth of our plaintive throats?
When our Dead comes with their Dead
When they have spoken to us in their clamsy voices;
Just as our ears were deaf
To their cries, to their wild appeals
Just as our ears were deaf
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 listen to their cries
If we weep, gently, gently
If we cry roughly to our torments
What heart will listen to our clamouring,
What ear to our sobbing hearts?