Antilliaanse Cahiers. Jaargang 3

[p. 35]

Frank Martinus Arion

Spiritual

Heat the stampers and rattling gourds
these stampers, this sound
of a hundred feet, these gourds
this tamtam, tamtam, o this tamtam
O these stampers, these stampers

long after my eyes are closed
in the shivering dance of death
these stampers will stamp

grind food, cassavas and corn
long after my eyes are closed
in the shivering dance of death
these stampers will stamp

I'll stay here, on this beach
I'll stay here, on this beach

stampers stamp
tamtams tam
gourds rattle
still in the shivers of my death.

(Translated by Estelle Debrot)