Poet Bios Diallo connects Mauritania’s struggle to form a united national identity with similar conflicts elsewhere on the continent.
And
Say to the tomb, without pride
Here the poem ends
Here identities, prayers bleed
And, look
Here also the nation is reborn
And since a country has but one language
That of its future, of its people
I will brandish my own
Though full of holes
And since we won’t exile ourselves
Or harm our land
I will be, for my nation
The eternal shepherd.
From La Saigne, published 2021 by Obsidiane. © 2021 by Bios Diallo. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2021 by Emma Ramadan. All rights reserved.