Poetry by Edgar Cairo

san a liba sondro syoro, syoro sondro yu,	what are rivers without shores, shores without you,
mi moi pramisiwan, di no ben doro?	a promise to me, still unredeemed?
a dat’ mek’ mi anga yu prakseri, ben de tu.	that’s why you and I are parted. beneath the night of empty talk, caught in words,
a ondro neti f’ leigi odo sondro nofo, pran!:	a canoe is waiting to leave,
wan spersper ondrofeni lai en tru	in the parting, filled with truth from this life.
fu tya kruya’ g’ a kawnaliba, gwe go lani.	let’s not go! no, let’s be bound into
mek’ un no go, mek’ un tan tai tori na in’	each other’s heart: you my current, I your channel!
wi ati. yu na mi watra! mi na yu goron!	how can such a voyage be, with no growing in us both?
dan fa kruya’ kan lolo, sondro fu wi frudu?	child of a new tide! this is the way that time drifts by, away to the coast! where in the
nyuntenkriyoro! ten, na so a e par en boto go	turn of tidings, life and love rise to the flood.
pe kondre sa kba nanga na syoro, kari se;
dape so libi tuka kba, e genti lobi f’ doro!
[Sranan]

Te mi de nengre na in’ mi wwan,	When I am, a negro soul alone
e tek’ luku gi soso dorosei-aiblaka,	and only have eyes for what goes on
e waki den worku, fa den e drage	beyond the whites of my eyes,
den alen na in’ den ini.	and see, the clouds pregnant with the rains . . .
Tra fas’ den no de!
Grontap’ sa soigi den,	Without each other, no cloud or rain:
na frudu d’ e was’ a bonyogron	this earth will suck them in like a tide
fu ala en kruktu!	that washes her dead bones clean, free of all injustice.
‘A taki dando dagwe-ê,
mi no si yu langa weni doro!	‘Spirit of the dagwe-snake 3
Dando dagwe-ô,	how long since I saw you come?
mi no si yu langa weni de!’	Dagwe-spirit,
Yere fa mi singi	how long since I saw you fly a human being?’
e nyan ala mi buba
kon tapu en gorogoro bilaka!	Hear this song of my black-man soul eat my skin and bone!
Soso na bari fu skinfiri	and the throat of the song, a solid lump of black!
kan fring’ wan lanpu
bron wan son!	Only the cry of the tortured
Dan mi op’ ai, luku si	can lift a lamp to shrivel the sun!
fa bromki toku
dorsu gro opo lek’ libisma,	Then my eyes open:
sondro na marki f’ a neti	despite everything, flowers
di worku ben krei e tya.	daring to blossom like people,
[Sranan]	without being scarred by the night which the clouds bore weeping by.

Footnotes

1. Masra Kodokoe/Meneer Kodoqius (Amsterdam: n.p., 1978). Rpt. Spiegel van de Surinaamse Poëzie, ed. Michiel van Kempen (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1995), 518.

2. Powema di rutu/Gezangen van oorsprong en toekomst (Haarlem: In de Knipscheer, 1982). Rpt. Spiegel van de Surinaamse Poëzië, ed. Michiel van Kempen (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1995), 522.

3. The dagwe is a sort of snake, but also the earth goddess, symbol of the link between humankind and nature. Note that the snake is not seen as a treacherous beast in the winti religion. NB The third verse is sung orally. [Poet’s note]