Gabriel Okara, a prize-winning author whose literary career spans six decades, is rightly hailed as the elder statesman of Nigerian literature. The first Modernist poet of anglophone Africa, he is best known for The Fisherman’s Invocation (1978), The Dreamer, His Vision (2005), and for his early experimental novel, The Voice (1964).
Arranged in six sections, Gabriel Okara: Collected Poems includes the poet’s earliest lyric verse along with poems written in response to Nigeria’s war years; literary tributes and elegies to fellow poets, activists, and loved ones long dead; and recent dramatic and narrative poems. The introduction by Brenda Marie Osbey contextualizes Okara’s work in the history of Nigerian, African, and English language literatures. Gabriel Okara: Collected Poems is at once a treasure for those long in search of a single authoritative edition and a revelation and timely introduction for readers new to the work of one of Africa’s most revered poets.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Acknowledgments
Introduction by Brenda Marie Osbey
Part I: The Early Lyrics
The Call of the River Nun
Once Upon a Time
Piano and Drums
Were I to Choose
Spirit of the Wind
New Year’s Eve Midnight
You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed
The Mystic Drum
One Night at Victoria Beach
The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down
Adhiambo
To Paveba
“Franvenkirche”
Fantasy
The Passing of a Year
The Gambler
Part II: The Fisherman’s Invocation
1: Introit
2: The Invocation
3: The Child-Front
4: Birth Dance of the Child-Front
5: The End
Part III: War Poems
Moods from Songs without Words
Leave Us Alone
I Am Only a Name
The Silent Voice
Suddenly the Air Cracks
Metaphor of a War
Cancerous Growth
Freedom Day
Moon in the Bucket
Flying over the Sahara
Kindly Sprite
Rural Path
Lady and Her Wig
Silent Girl
Cross on the Moon
Rain Lullaby
Come, Come and Listen
Sunday
Dispensing Morning Balm
To a Star
Celestial Song
The Glowering Rat
The Dead a Spirit Demands
Christmas 1971
Welcome Home
Waiting for Her Son
Part IV: Revolt of the Gods
Argument I
Argument II
Part V: The Dreamer, His Vision
The Dreamer
Bent Double with Weight
Darkness
The Precipice
Moon Massaged Me to Sleep
Adieu!
Anthem of Silence
Complex Matter
Dispensing Morning Balm
Setting Sun
Beauty beyond Words
Taps Are Dry
Self Preservation
The Little Bird
Morbidity
Smiling Morning
River Nun—2
We Live to Kill and Kill to Live
The Land at Christmas ’93
Ovation Seeker
Mass Transit Buses
Contractors
Civil Servants
Smokers’ Wish
Man Dies, Never Dies
Part VI: Prayers and Tributes
Give Us Good Leaders
Talking Nonsense
Rural Dweller
Lone Mourner
Apartheid
Spark in the Sky
A Prayer
From Ken to Mike
Rise and Shine
Requiem
Man Polygamous
Mammy-Water & Me
Wedding Bells
To the Lady of the House
For Ada Udechukwu
A Boy’s Dream
Queen
Letter to My Grandson
Babydom Wisdom
Waiting for a Coming
Snow over Home of the Newly Wed
Before I Say Good-Bye (India)
Moon over Heidelberg
Salt of the Earth
Eagle in the Sun
The Aruzzo Farm House
We Shared
Happy Birthday
Chronology
Glossary
