WHIMSY
the madrigal, volume iii
Ndousa Mouna
by dora manuel culabo and landa wo
Ndousa Mouna What do the ancestors’ voices say?”
Let’s listen to it.
Ata Ata Ndué... speak now...
Exile is what is supposed to happen...
A dead stone out of water
Waters of inland Mozambique
I want to go home,
I want to go home now.
Ata Ata Ndué... speak now...
I am twenty years old, but I’ve already lived fifty years!
Am I young or old
Like the young elders chosen by God ?
That stone coming from the water makes my heart wonder...
Am I young?
How old am I?
Twenty or Fifty?
I am confused... I am lost.
Ata Ata Ndué... speak now...
Hope and destiny are cracked,
“Exile” is the name of my dream,
I am young and bold and full of hope
And sleeping in the Sahara desert,
And gently speak, and dream of my homeland.
How far is my home, how many mountains hide in my pain,
One girl loves the dying song of fatality.
Ata Ata Ndué... speak now
Dreaming she said...
You’re still young my daughter!
In memory of my mother
We make a ceremony,
A house with no rooms.
Ata Ata Ndué... speak now...
Dreaming she said:
You are a fighter, I can't tell you what to do.
You are a fighter, you know what you are supposed to do...
Ata Ata Ndué... speak now...
And hiding in the forest beside the river,
Murmur, a last word, how absence is home,
And face down behind the dark sky,
And my hope amid a picture of my lost home.
I want to go home,
I want to go home now.
Ata Ata Ndué... speak now...
My home is full,
The cemetery is empty,
I dreamed that my lost love was waiting for me:
The cemetery is empty,
She was not there.
Ndousa Mouna what do the ancestors’ voices say?”
Let’s listen to it.
There are no walls in exile.
Dora Manuel Culabo is a poet from Mozambique with recent publications in Contemporary Verse 2, Mallarmargens - revista de poesia e arte contemporânea, The Blue Nib and Newfound. Originally from Niassa in the city of Lichinga, Dora Manuel Culabo lives in Nampula.
Landa wo’s poetry has appeared in a variety of publications and several anthologies. With roots in Angola and Cabinda, Landa wo is an Afro-French poet member of Société des Poètes Français. Politically engaged his work deals with prominent issues of social justice, discrimination and cultural strife.