Colonial languages

Languages

I wish I could talk to you in languages

Touch you in Wolof

Kiss your body in Lingala

Love you in Bambara

I wish I could talk to you in my own voices

And with my music

Those sounds which burn in our soul

So, smiling in Chokwe

Play with you in Swahili

I dream of venting my being

In Fula, Mandang

And after that, loose myself in the between, in your Yoruba

Remember in Umbundo

Come in Kimbundo

But, oh no, I only speak Portuguese

Colonial languages

And the post-colonial conditions

And freedom?

Which language to speak?

Which chant to sing?

Can silence translate it?

Can space contain it?

*Translated from Portuguese by Alyxandra Gomes