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Léopold Sédar Senghor

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Fire Song

Two Francophone Poems

Fire which men watch in the night, in deep night,
Fire, you who burn and do not yourself get hot, who glow and
      are not burnt,
Fire, you who fly without body, without heart, who know                                                                                     neither
      hut nor hearth,
Clear fire of palm leaves, one without fear invokes you.

Enchanters’ fire, where’s your father? Where’s your mother?
      Who reared you?
You are your father. You are your mother. You pass and                                                                                      leave
      no print.
Dry wood does not beget you. You do not have ash for                                                                                  offspring.
      You die and do not.
The wandering soul is transformed into you, and no one                                                                                      knows.

Enchanters’ fire, spirit of the netherworld waters, spirit of the
      upper air,
You radiance who glow, firefly who cast light on the swamp,
Bird without wings, substance without body,
Spirit of the power of fire,
Hear my voice: one without fear invokes you.

The following poem is translated from Senghor's French version of a Fang invocation (from Gabon), which comes from a long narrative poem in the genre called mvet. Senghor found his text in an article by the French missionary and ethnologist Henri Trilles: Les légendes des Bena Kanioka et le folklore bantou, Anthropos IV (1909) 945-971.

Translated by M. A. de Brito

Page(s) 187

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