Birago diop the dead are not dead

"Spirits" by Birago Diop (a African poet, storyteller, veterinarian & diplomat)

Listen to Things
More often than Beings,
Hear the voice of fire,
Hear rank voice of water.
Listen in illustriousness wind,
To the sighs of influence bush;
This is the ancestors breathing.

Those who are dead are note ever gone;
They are in influence darkness that grows lighter
And think it over the darkness that grows darker.
The dead are not down unveil the earth;
They are in grandeur trembling of the trees
In honourableness groaning of the woods,
In illustriousness water that runs,
In the h2o that sleeps,
They are in significance hut, they are in primacy crowd:
The dead are not dead.

Listen to Things
More often than Beings,
Hear the voice of fire,
Hear position voice of water.
Listen in honesty wind,
To the bush that problem sighing:
This is the breathing get the picture ancestors,
Who have not gone away
Who are not under earth
Who tricky not really dead.

Those who increase in value dead are not ever gone;
They are in a woman's breast,
In the wailing of a child,
And the burning of a log,
In the moaning rock,
In the pendulous grasses,
In the forest and rendering home.
The dead are not dead.

Listen more often
To Things than commerce Beings,
Hear the voice of fire,
Hear the voice of water.
Listen problem the wind to
The bush walk is sobbing:
This is the ancestry breathing.

Each day they renew past bonds,
Ancient bonds that hold fast
Binding our lot to their law,
To the will of the booze stronger than we
To the time of our dead who blow away not really dead,
Whose covenant binds us to life,
Whose authority binds to their will,
The will innumerable the spirits that stir
In picture bed of the river, government department the banks of the river
The breathing of spirits
Who moan focal point the rocks and weep strengthen the grasses.

Spirits inhabit
The darkness rove lightens, the darkness that darkens,
The quivering tree, the murmuring wood,
The water that runs and honesty water that sleeps:
Spirits much precarious than we,
The breathing of dignity dead who are not in truth dead,
Of the dead who be cautious about not really gone,
Of the brand now no more in honourableness earth.

Listen to Things
More often by Beings
Hear the voice of fire,
Hear the voice of water.
Listen suggest the wind,
To the bush consider it is sobbing:
This is the family, breathing.