I'M FROM A PLACE

I'm from a place where the oldest mouse resides,

a place where the single room of man has many things;

from farm tools to food, kitchen tools to sanitary items

and to the mat where a family of six sleep on.

I'm from a place where bamboo is of greatest value:

check our roofs, fence, firewoods, baskets and most furnitures.

You need not to be told. 

Where I come from, hugs and handshakes are cues for brotherliness

The dictionary of men lacks space for "laziness".

It's a place where night remains day: Men go to work with empty stomachs,

Nursing mothers go to farm with their babies strapped across their backs:

It's a place where the farm is a second home.

Where I'm from, families dance to the acrimony of real poverty 

and still strive for great change: They don't chuck up the sponge.

It's a place where candles, awereba kandzea and kerosene have the highest purchase.

Burning the midnight candle is a passion 

And sacrificing for excellence, an obsession

I'm from a place where prayer is a meal.

It's served on your table so you can't resist,

It would be pushed down your throat to choke.

I'm from this place where children bend their heads and cross hands 

at their backs when they stand before elders to face rebukes.

Hear their solemn words of apology, and you'll melt!

Yɛse, ɔba nyansafo wobu no bɛ na wɔnnka no asɛm.

Let the mothers from my place give you a look from the corner of their eyes,

and it's just a perfect sign of warning.

Watch the young ladies from my place grind in the earthenware bowl 

And as they do, see the accentuating movement of their body contours, so beautiful!

Their beauty add to the taste of the food.

And when we all gather around to eat from the same bowl, 

it's an exchange of food in the mouth. You'll chew your hands, you will!

I'm from this place

so I know my roots

If there's any cause to abate any good moral,  

remind me to look behind

and I'll remember where I come from.