Tano / The Awakening

Lyrics

Brathwaite's reading of these poems can be heard on SoundCloud or by opening this annotation Tano1dam dam damirifa damirifa due damirifa due damirifa due due due due dam dam damirifa damirifa due damirifa due damirifa due due due due whom does death overlook? whom whom does death overlook? I am an orphan and when I recall the death of my father water from eyes from my eyes falls upon me dam dam damirifa damirifa due damirifa due damirifa due due due due dam dam damirifa damirifa due damirifa due damirifa due due due due I am an orphan and when I recall the death of my mother water from eyes from my eyes falls upon me we walk we walk we walk Nana Tano and it will soon be night. 2So Nana Tano if I am going away now you must help me. Death, dumb speaking god, mutters for me; deaf- ness listens; green hearing eyes see. Exiled from here to seas of bitter edges, whips of white worlds, stains of new rivers, I have returned to you. Not Chad, the Niger's blood, or Benin's burning bronze can save me now. You I depend upon: Onyame's eldest son. How have I failed who only needed friends' quick eyes to share the terror? How have I failed who only tried to dare the ships; slow journey's whips; who speaks to me of error? We walk we walk we walk, Nana Tano, and it will soon be night. 3And it will soon be night, Nana Tano, when the dry seed cracks and a new star splits into darkness. When the drum sticks bend and the drum- mer climbs out of the dark- ness. Buttocks balance the earth; spine fuses the drum- beats to move- ment; lights twinkle to life in their root tips; the tree rises again and you rise with its trunk and its move- ment of branches; leaves hear again what the distance is saying; and my mem- ory bends, curves, nods head and crouches; feeding the dust at the soles of its feet as it dances. The AwakeningAsase Yaa, Earth, if I am going away now, you must help me. Divine Drummer, ' Kyerema , if time sends me walking that dark path again, you must help me. If I sleep, you must knock me awake ... and as the cock now cries in the early dawn so slowly slowly ever so slowly I will rise and stand on my feet slowly slowly ever so slowly I will rise and stand on my feet like akoko the cock like akoko the cock who cries who cries in the morning akoko bon' opa akoko tua bon I am learning let me succeed I am learning let me succeed ...