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Choice

Flavien Ranaivo

– Who is she whose-feet-go-clattering-the-hard-ground?
– The daughter of the new chief-of-thousand.
– If it is the daughter of the chief-of-thousand
tell her soon the night will fall
and that I will exchange love red as coral
for a hint of friendship.

– Who is she-who-comes-from-the-north?
– The sister of the widow-with-the jamerose-perfume.
– Tell her to come in without delay,
I will prepare her something good to eat.
– She will not taste it, if I know her:
she takes only rice water
not because she is thirsty
but capricious about you.


Flavien Ranaivo

from Bending the Bow: An Anthology of African Love Poetry, edited by Frank M. Chipasula (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2009)

Reproduced by kind permission of the publisher.

Tags:

African poetry Madagascar wooing and courtship

About this poem

This poem, representing Madagascar, 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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