poems from the dome
These poems featured in a special meridian-line display at the Millennium Dome exhibition, Greenwich, UK.

Traditional Ewe Dirge
Anon, Togo

The children of Kini are suffering on the savannah;
The father's children languish in the house.

If the offspring of one chief prosper,
To another's misfortune will surely come.

The children of Kini are suffering on the savannah;
The mother's children languish in the house.

No-one can withstand death,
An inextricable knot no-one may untie.
When death arrives to tell you to go, you must go.

Whilst we were walking on the road, a rain shower
Drenched us; even the wild birds shivered.

The children had ventured out to gather herbs:
We did not take it for the sharp shower of death

Which none may shrug off.

translated by Rober Fraser

dome poems