Serbia 0-1 Ghana

Miodrag Pavlovic (1928- ; trans. Bernard Johnson)



The sun setting

The sun setting
children shouting beneath the window
games in cold weather

When the sky closes in
the one left defenceless
tries not to show fear
or to laugh

Prisoner

Bend down
wave you hand
let the raven gnaw
at your soft palm

Fear neither wind nor stone
every wound is a splinter of flame
when you look darkness in the face

Freedom
blood flowing
between day and night

Gladness
seeking you out
your whole life through

Gladness


Kwesi Brew (1928-2007)



Ancestral Voices

They sneaked into the limbo of time
But could not muffle the gay jingling
Brass bells on the frothy necks
Of the sacrificial sheep that limped and nodded after them;
They could not hide the moss on the bald pate
Of their reverent heads;
And the gnarled backs of the wawa tree;
Nor the rust on the ancient state-swords;
Nor the skulls studded with grinning cowries;
They could not silence the drums,
The fibre of their souls and ours -
The drums that whisper to us behind black sinewy hands.
They gazed
And sweeping like white locusts through the forests
Saw the same men, slightly wizened,
Shuffle their sandalled feet to the same rhythms,
They heard the same words of wisdom uttered
Between puffs of pale blue smoke:
They saw us,
And said: They have not changed!