……….plains of the northern and the eastern fields.
……….and delicate as entrails, strong as tendons. The friendship of the comrades fervent as bowels We, in these days of fear without memory, we bringĪh! May I, one day, in a voice glowing like embers, ……….your names in the months of your death, We bring you, listen to us, we who epilate ……….drunk from the corners of the forgetful lips. The warmest tears too clear and too quickly ……….in the Fouta streams in the dry season, Too quickly drying up the cheeks of your wives, as ……….fury and prefer the stench of the living. ……….ears and eyes in your threefold chamber
Listen to me, black skin Riflemen, well without Without even the warmth of your comrades lying close to ……….I in my dark skin at the depths of the Province, In your solitude without eyes without ears, more than Listen to me, Senegalese Riflemen, in the solitude of Of the future deaths, they thank them in advance, future You my dark brothers, no one appoints you.įive hundred thousand of your children are promised glory They put flowers on tombs and warm the Unknown Soldier. I hear the sound of cannon-is it from Irun? Who would awaken the dead under a maternal earth. Who makes the old men smile on the green benches Which tightens the breasts of the virgins TO THE SENEGALESE RIFLEMEN WHO DIED FOR FRANCE This is part of our special feature, Beyond Eurafrica: Encounters in a Globalized World.
Translated from the French by Baba Badji.