WEDDING PARADE - A SUDANESE ANTHOLOGY

March 15th, 2025

Wedding Parade

In the heat of the daluka dreambeats, the young girls were casting charms, from kohl-lined eyes, where beauty felt at home. 

Tonight, mother of the bride, we brought you our cream of the cream; palm fonds in our hands, a good omen for green times to come. 

Virgins as soft as young plants, nursed in the shades for blooming time. 

Rapture flying out of the drums, like flocks of birds taking to the sky, as the wedding parade gaily slid along the Nile bank. 

We would catch rare glimpses of unguarded beauty, yet we never go beyond the limits.

 Tonight, mother of the bride, we brought you our cream of the cream; palm fonds in our hands. A good omen for green times to come. 

A proud community servant did the honors; carrying around the incense burner, barefooted, in the brisk steps, all smiles, he warmly welcomed the parade. 

An elated old woman recited warm-hearted verse, her voice underdulating, recalling past glories, the girls clapping to the rhythm, while shooting glances around; 

a mischievous gazelle straightened her dress, behind others' backs, she showed me her necklace a pigeon stepped forward, uncovered her hair, and spread wings and chest, exposing gleaming scars on the cheeks. 

❤

This poem, I discovered, as part of a Sudanese anthology, a collection of Sudanese poems, published in 2019 by Adil Bakir - transliterated into English.