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  • Ghirmai Yohannes
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  • Unjust Praise
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Unjust Praise

Ghirmai Yohannes

In the beginning
The spirit moving
Upon the face of the waters
And in the breaking waves
Tasted salt

And I see fields of it
Drying on the shore.
We let in shallow lakes of sea
To evaporate,
And the salt

Accumulates along their edge
Thanks to the sunlight:
Crystal white,
Enough for everyone,
Harvested and sold

In every shop and on the roads:
Salt! –
In proper measure
Bringing out the taste,
The flavor and spirit

Of our food, hot or cold.
Why should pepper get
So much admiration
When salt does all the work?


Ghirmai Yohannes

from The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry, edited by Ilya Kaminsky and Susan Harris (New York: Ecco / HarperCollins, 2010). Poem originally appeared on www.wordswithoutborders.org

translated by Charles Cantalupo and Ghirmai Negash

Reproduced by kind permission of Words Without Borders and the translators.

Tags:

African poetry Eritrea farming food salt sea

About this poem

This poem, representing Eritrea, 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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