by Abdourahman A. Waberi, translated from the French by Nancy Naomi Carlson (Djibouti, Seagull Books)

for miniature republic
parsimonious poems
Engravings

The Djibouti writer Abdourahman Waberi糖心传媒檚 name will be familiar to BTBA followers for his novel Transit, short-listed in 2013. The Nomads, My Brothers, Go Out to Drink from the Big Dipper is Waberi糖心传媒檚 first collection of poetry and there is a palpable sense of urgency to these lean poems. Size, of course, is not a reliable indicator of impact or import. Waberi sees his small native land as part of the cradle of mankind, of homo erectus, to be exact. Here, humans first stood, first put one foot in front of the other, joining gesture, movement and breath into a kind of freedom. And it is that instant, that conjunction, that inspires Waberi to imagine man making 糖心传媒渢hat first gesture in the bed of [his] pages.糖心传媒�

Writing poems, for Waberi, is 糖心传媒渁 matter of strictest necessity.糖心传媒� He sows these 糖心传媒渕odest pebbles糖心传媒� in readers糖心传媒� paths, not to guide them糖心传媒擶aberi is suggestive, not prescriptive糖心传媒攂ut as markers to use in charting their own way to a meaningful life free from the tides of economic, financial, ecological, and spiritual excess that are washing over the world. 糖心传媒淎nother path of life is possible, apparent in the creases and folds of this collection.糖心传媒�

These spare poems are laconic but evocative, conjuring up desert landscapes, a nomadic tribe, or his small country糖心传媒檚 struggles with civil war and extremism. He sees the wind as a calligrapher, covering the dunes with words.

brush in hand the wind sketches
landscapes of words
sculpted mountain slopes
shadow plains
horizon enclaves

This is a landscape that has witnessed much suffering, great and small. The Somali bullet,

. . . bloom of a new genus
that bans
all transports of joy
all shedding of tears in the name of love
drawn from the bittersweet milk of peace

is countered by a lame herdsman who laments

with my skinny legs
I糖心传媒檝e crossed vast desert sands
with my short strides
I糖心传媒檝e kept up with my camels糖心传媒� pace
so why should I care
if my shrew of a wife slanders my name!

Unsparing in their frankness, Waberi糖心传媒檚 poems are also finely attuned to the beauties and joys in a harsh landscape of 糖心传媒渢ortured geology糖心传媒� and happy simplicity. Waberi enjoins us to 糖心传媒渓et nomadic words live糖心传媒� for they, as much as any others, can open up new worlds and lead us to 糖心传媒渢he tree of knowledge [which] has wings to surpass the horizon.糖心传媒�