Barco salva-vidas / Lifeboat

Rokia Traoré –Kélé Mandi

Era hora de lançar o salva-vidas à água.

Tinha forças para remar, mas a falta de bússola deixou-me sem saber para onde ir.

Já tinha esquecido o conhecimento ancestral das estrelas-guia, julgo que todos o transportamos connosco, na nossa memória herdada. Mas as luzes do Mundo fizeram-nos esquecê-lo.

E ali estava eu, iluminada pelas estrelas, sem entender o que me diziam. Era, pelo menos, reconfortante tê-las ali comigo.

Tive sede, mas não podia beber, a água estava cheia de medos, não se devem beber, especialmente quando a incerteza nos abraça.

Decidi que devia parar, fechar os olhos, para melhor ouvir as estrelas, o som das ondas.

E então percebi que não havia remos, nem sequer bote, flutuava nas águas, agora calmamente.

A minha cápsula salva-vidas não era mais que o meu corpo. E então a minha alma aquietou-se. Ouvia as estrelas, o mar, a terra ao longe. E soube que ia entendê-los e que a terra me esperava.

Para todos há, algures, a Terra Prometida.

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It was time to launch the lifeboats into the water.

I had the strength to paddle, but the lack of  a compass left me not knowing where to go.

I had forgotten about the ancestral knowledge of the stars-guide, I believe that we all transport it with us in our inherited memory. But the lights of the world have made us forget it.

And there I was, under the light of the stars, without understanding what they told me. It was at least comforting to have them there with me.

I was thirsty, but could not drink the water, it was full of fears, we should not drink it, especially when uncertainty embraces us.

I decided I should stop, close my eyes, the better to hear the stars, the sound of waves.

And then I realized that there were no waves or even boat, I floated in the waters, now calmly.

My capsule lifeboat was nothing more than my body. And then my mind quieted. He could hear the stars, the sea, the land in the distance. And I knew I would understand them and that the land was waiting.

For all there is, somewhere, the Promised Land.