Translated Labs

YOU SAID:

Africa, you were once just a name to me But now you lie before me with sombre green challenge To that loud faith for freedom (life more abundant) Which we once professed shouting Into the silent listening microphone Or on an alien platform to a sea Of white perplexed faces troubled With secret Imperial guilt; shouting Of you with a vision euphemistic As you always appear To your lonely sons on distant shores. Then the cold sky and continent would disappear In a grey mental mist. And in its stead the hibiscus blooms in shameless scarlet and the bougainvillea in mauve passion entwines itself around strong branches the palm trees stand like tall proud moral women shaking their plaited locks against the cool suggestive evening breeze; the short twilight passes; the white full moon turns its round gladness towards the swept open space between the trees; there will be dancing tonight; and in my brimming heart plenty of love and laughter. Oh, I got tired of the cold northern sun Of white anxious ghost-like faces Of crouching over heatless fires In my lonely bedroom. The only thing I never tired of was the persistent kindness Of you too few unafraid Of my grave dusky strangeness. So I came back Sailing down the Guinea Coast. Loving the sophistication Of your brave new cities: Dakar, Accra, Cotonou, Lagos, Bathurst and Bissau; Liberia, Freetown, Libreville, Freedom is really in the mind. Go up-country, so they said, To see the real Africa. For whomsoever you may be, That is where you come from. Go for bush, inside the bush, You will find your hidden heart, Your mute ancestral spirit. So I went, dancing on my way. Now you lie before me passive With your unanswering green challenge. Is this all you are? This long uneven red road, this occasional succession Of huddled heaps of four mud walls And thatched, falling grass roofs Sometimes ennobled by a thin layer Of white plaster, and covered with thin Slanting corrugated zinc. These patient faces on weather-beaten bodies Bowing under heavy market loads. The pedalling cyclist wavers by On the wrong side of the road, As if uncertain of his new emancipation. The squawking chickens, the pregnant she-goats Lumber awkwardly with fear across the road, Across the windscreen view of my four-cylinder kit car. An overloaded lorry speeds madly towards me Full of produce, passengers, with driver leaning Out into the swirling dust to pilot his Swinging obsessed vehicle along, Beside him on the raised seat his first-class Passenger, clutching and timid; but he drives on At so, so many miles per hour, peering out with Bloodshot eyes, unshaved face and dedicated look; His motto painted on each side: Sunshine Transport, We get you there quick, quick. The Lord is my Shepherd. The red dust settles down on the green leaves. I know you will not make me want, Lord, Though I have reddened your green pastures It is only because I have wanted so much That I have always been found wanting. From South and East, and from my West (The sandy desert holds the North) We look across a vast continent And blindly call it ours. You are not a country, Africa, You are a concept, Fashioned in our minds, each to each, To hide our separate fears, To dream our separate dreams. Only those within you who know Their circumscribed plot, And till it well with steady plough Can from that harvest then look up To the vast blue inside Of the enamelled bowl of sky Which covers you and say ‘This is my Africa’ meaning ‘I am content and happy. I am fulfilled, within, Without and roundabout I have gained the little longings Of my hands, my loins, my heart And the soul that follows in my shadow.’ I know now that is what you are, Africa: Happiness, contentment, and fulfilment, And a small bird singing on a mango tree.

INTO JAPANESE

アフリカ、あなたはかつて私にとってただの名前でしたが、今、あなたは私の前に素朴な緑の挑戦で嘘をつきます白い困惑した顔は秘密の帝国の罪悪感で悩んでいます。幻想主義者の叫び

BACK INTO ENGLISH

Africa, you were once a name for me, but now you lie with a simple green challenge before me White confused face suffers from the guilt of the secret empire. Scream of fantasy

INTO JAPANESE

アフリカ、あなたはかつて私の名前でしたが、今あなたは私の前に単純な緑の挑戦でうそをつきます白は秘密の帝国の罪悪感に苦しんでいます。ファンタジーの悲鳴

BACK INTO ENGLISH

Africa, you were my name once, now you lie with a simple green challenge before me White is suffering from the guilt of the secret empire. Fantasy scream

INTO JAPANESE

アフリカ、あなたはかつて私の名前でした、今、あなたは私の前に簡単な緑の挑戦でうそをつきますホワイトは秘密の帝国の罪悪感に苦しんでいます。ファンタジー悲鳴

BACK INTO ENGLISH

Africa, you were my name once, now you lie with a simple green challenge before me White is suffering from the guilt of the secret empire. Fantasy scream

Equilibrium found!

You've done this before, haven't you.

HOT PARTIES

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You may want to crash these parties too

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