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African Moon

Koumanthio Zeinab Diallo

I have dreamed for you
Friend
A beautiful moon
Beautiful as only the moon
Of my village can be
In my village where girls dress
In clothes the color of joy
And dance to the slender sound of the drum
In my village where no neon
Dulls the magical clarity
Of Lady Moon
In my village where no buildings
Block the passing of the luminous rays
Of Lady Moon
In my village where crickets orchestrate
A mute concert to salute
Lady Moon
In my village where mountains awakened by
The melodious sound of pastoral flute
Rise to salute
Lady Moon
in your silence, O, friend
Accept a morsel of my beautiful
African Moon
To break up the night that haunts you
And a corner of my blue sky
To add to the enchanting green
Of my beautiful Africa
To brighten your sombre heart
To make hope eternal.


Koumanthio Zeinab Diallo

from A Rain of Words: A Bilingual Anthology of Women’s Poetry in Francophile Africa, edited by Irène Assiba d’Almeida (Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2009)

translated by Janis A. Mayes

Reproduced by kind permission of the author.

Tags:

African poetry beauty ecology night the moon

About this poem

This poem, representing Guinea, is part of The Written World – our collaboration with BBC radio to broadcast a poem from every single nation competing in London 2012.

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Koumanthio Zeinab Diallo

Koumanthio Zeinab Diallo was born in 1956, in Labé, Guinea. She works as a writer, playwright, and theatre producer. An agricultural engineer by profession, she has also been an education and development consultant for international organisations in Guinea, including...
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