The Woman who Laughs at Life and Death by Noémia de Sousa

Out there beyond the swerve
the ancestral spirits await me

Soon, very soon,
I will take my place among my forebears

To the land I will leave the remnants of my useless body,
the corneous nails of all efforts,
this casing furrowed by the spider of time

Before I am called to speak with the voice of a nyanga
each day is a victory
I greet it with the irreverent laughter of my secret triumph

Oyo, oyo, life!

Out there beyond the swerve
the ancestral spirits await me