A Touch of Salt on My Confession

A Touch of Salt on My Confession Abdourahman A. Waberi (bio) Translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution They come to see meThey ask me for the seaAlgae and fishUnlike Jesus I have no giftFor self-deprecationI stay hereHead down writing page after pageLonely prophetFor company I haveCats and geraniumsWithout warning they leave with miserybetween their legsAnd for the first timeA blood of ink has me by the throatIn the flux and flow of the coming tomorrowsI've only one thing to doTame the whale of the unknown Not easySince childhood I've limped slightly like OedipusSame eclipse on the pin or is it the contractedAchilles heelThe cavernous tibia bones, the calf thin as a filletmaking meLie down underMy grandmother's boubouI lack muscle and breathAnd pass through the rift of the presentMeet others through a break-inOr by chance, join the danceIgnore the devil going round and round above my headEven as a kidI ran away from the packThe law of tyrantsThe Machiavellis in the sandboxesI often lose myselfSometimes I find myselfAnd this time the naked eye seesThrough the reeds of the thick nightFlesh if cornered too many timesEnds up biting There are daysWhen the voiceless end upSpeaking under the weight of contemptAs we know, no worse torture exists Translation from the French [End Page 43] Abdourahman A. Waberi Abdourahman A. Waberi, from Djibouti, is a major voice in African postcolonial studies. He has received a multitude of honors, including a PEN France prize and a medal from the Académie française. Since 2012, he has been a professor of French and francophone studies at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Nancy Naomi Carlson Nancy Naomi Carlson's translation of Khal Torabully's Cargo Hold of Stars: Coolitude (Seagull) won the 2022 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Her second full-length poetry collection, as well as Delicates, her co-translation of Wendy Guerra, were noted in the New York Times. She serves as the translations editor for On the Seawall. Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma