Swans Commentary » swans.com November 18, 2013  

 


 

For the 87 Immigrants Who Died in Niger
 

 

by Guido Monte

 

Multilingual Poetry

 

Translated by Adele Ward

 

 

Pic: "cammino" - © 2004 by Guido Monte - Size: 8k
cammino
© 2004 Guido Monte

 

 

(Swans - November 18, 2013)  

from agadez to arlit,
with two old trucks,
towards tamanrasset,
to go and ask for alms
in front of the mosques.
but in the desert
something broke,
the drivers fled,
and the immigrants found themselves alone
y los migrantes fueron abandonados
abandoned in the Sahara by the "passeurs"
who they had paid a high price

and they were only less
than ten kilometres away
but they did not know it,
nearly ninety souls
nearly fifty children
going from niger towards algeria.

the witnesses found
the corpses spread out in small groups,
each one made up of a mother and her infants
dead of thirst in the sun
muertos en el calor del sol.

 

 

picture: cammino by Guido Monte (2004).

From the UK Telegraph "The bodies of 87 migrants have been found in Niger's desert north after they died of thirst just a few miles from the border of Algeria, their planned destination.

"The corpses of the seven men, 32 women and 48 children were in addition to five bodies of women and girls found earlier, a security source said.

"All died in early October after a failed attempt to reach Algeria that began in late September, a source said." [...]

Read the full article.

 

To e-mail this article

 

· · · · · ·

 

Care about Guido's work? Then please consider a donation. Thank you.

· · · · · ·

 

Legalese

Feel free to insert a link to this work on your Web site or to disseminate its URL on your favorite lists, quoting the first paragraph or providing a summary. However, DO NOT steal, scavenge, or repost this work on the Web or any electronic media. Inlining, mirroring, and framing are expressly prohibited. Pulp re-publishing is welcome -- please contact the publisher. This material is copyrighted, © Guido Monte 2013. All rights reserved.

 

Have your say

Do you wish to share your opinion? We invite your comments. E-mail the Editor. Please include your full name, address and phone number (the city, state/country where you reside is paramount information). When/if we publish your opinion we will only include your name, city, state, and country.

 

About the Author

Guido Monte on Swans (with bio). Also, please check Guido's entry on Wikipedia.   (back)

 

· · · · · ·

 

Internal Resources

Poetry

Arts & Culture

· · · · · ·

 

This edition's other articles

Check the front page, where all current articles are listed.

 

Also...

Check our past editions, where the past remains very present.


· · · · · ·

 

[About]-[Past Issues]-[Archives]-[Resources]-[Copyright]

 

 

Swans -- ISSN: 1554-4915
URL for this work: http://www.swans.com/library/art19/gmonte175.html
Published November 18, 2013



THE COMPANION OF THINKING PEOPLE