Assassinations by Léopold Sédar Senghor
The vast song of your blood will defeat machines and canons
Assassinations
They lie there stretched out by the captive roads, along the
roads of disaster
The lean poplars, the statues of the dark gods
draped in their long gold coats
Senegalese prisoners miserably lying
on the French land.
In vain they cut your laughter, in vain the blacker the flower, the
blacker your flesh.
You are the flower of beauty among the first absence
nude flowers
Black flower blossom and its somber smile, diamond of a time
immemorial.
You are the mud and plasma of the world’s leafy
spring
From the primitive couple, you are the flesh of the womb, the
belly fertilizing milt
You are the sacred profusion of bright, blissful gardens
And the sovereign forest, victorious of fire and lightning
The vast song of your blood will defeat machines and canons
Your speech throbbing deceptions and lies
No hate in your soul, you are not hateful, no cunning
soul without cunning.
O Black Martyrs, immortal race, let me say the
words that forgive.
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Source: Europe Now Journal (Beyond Eurafrica: Encounters in a Globalized World, March 1, 2018). Translated from the French by Baba Badji.
Thank you for sharing this poem by Senghor. One doesn't come across lines like this every day: "You are the mud and plasma of the world’s leafy spring."
I appreciate the reminder that great national leaders and statesmen are sometimes poets. It would be wonderful to read the original French side by side with the English translation.