Daily Poem: Drought ~ Oumar Ba
Drought
~ Oumar Ba
(Translated from French by Kathleen Weaver)
The frail scorched grasses are stripped now
Of their green hues and compared to the
Hot sun. The evil dryness poisons the heart
Of the unconquerable branching rivers and
The harsh shriveling winds burrow under ground,
Muddied with filth—the forest next,
Now birds give up their songs, and the dug-out
Canoes are lodged in the banks of sand,
Now the sombre salvation from dryness,
A time of gaiety, celebration, but
Stripped of its leaves and useful shrubs,
Nature, after the moist sorrow of the
Fatal loss, weeps like a mother
Bereft of her children, the adornments.
Parched with thirst, the whole tribe of birds,
Song ravaged by unending drought,
Strength pillaged by pain—the tumult dies
Now the sombre salvation from dryness,
The natural fatality of existence.
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