Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- No Wings
- Preface to Second Edition
- Foreword to Second Edition
- Introduction to Second Edition
- A Note of History
- Should I Ever…
- THE COUNTRYSIDE
- AKAN
- EWE
- GA-ADANGME
- DAGOMBA
- HAUSA
- THE TOWN
- Tumble-Down Woods
- Tough Guy in Town
- In the Streets of Accra
- Snuff and the Ashes
- Radio Dance Hour
- This is Experience Speaking
- Palm Leaves of Childhood
- Hot Day
- The Literary Society
- It's Ritual Murder
- The Wrong Packing Case
- Lines on Korle Bu
- Pay Day
- The Walk of Life (Agbezoli)
- Peace
- Heaven is a Fine Place
- Ata
- Complaint
- To My Mother
- Oh! My Brother
- The Homeless Boy
- The Lone Horse
- The Perfect Understander
- The Woods Decay
- On Parting
- To the Night Insects
- The Blind Man from the North
- A Second Birthday
- In God's Tired Face
- The Executioner's Dream
- Had I Known
- Re-incarnation
- Ancestral Faces
- ‘O Forest, Dear Forest’
- My Sea Adventure
- The Passing of The King
- Patriotism
- African Heaven
- The Ghosts
- The Herdsman from Wa
- Pa Grant Due
- The Mosquito and the Young Ghanaian
- Unity in Diversity
- The Journey to Independence
- Ode to the Hon. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
- The Dawn of the New Era
- The Meaning of Independence
- National Anthem
- The Contributors
- Index
On Parting
from THE TOWN
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 August 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- No Wings
- Preface to Second Edition
- Foreword to Second Edition
- Introduction to Second Edition
- A Note of History
- Should I Ever…
- THE COUNTRYSIDE
- AKAN
- EWE
- GA-ADANGME
- DAGOMBA
- HAUSA
- THE TOWN
- Tumble-Down Woods
- Tough Guy in Town
- In the Streets of Accra
- Snuff and the Ashes
- Radio Dance Hour
- This is Experience Speaking
- Palm Leaves of Childhood
- Hot Day
- The Literary Society
- It's Ritual Murder
- The Wrong Packing Case
- Lines on Korle Bu
- Pay Day
- The Walk of Life (Agbezoli)
- Peace
- Heaven is a Fine Place
- Ata
- Complaint
- To My Mother
- Oh! My Brother
- The Homeless Boy
- The Lone Horse
- The Perfect Understander
- The Woods Decay
- On Parting
- To the Night Insects
- The Blind Man from the North
- A Second Birthday
- In God's Tired Face
- The Executioner's Dream
- Had I Known
- Re-incarnation
- Ancestral Faces
- ‘O Forest, Dear Forest’
- My Sea Adventure
- The Passing of The King
- Patriotism
- African Heaven
- The Ghosts
- The Herdsman from Wa
- Pa Grant Due
- The Mosquito and the Young Ghanaian
- Unity in Diversity
- The Journey to Independence
- Ode to the Hon. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
- The Dawn of the New Era
- The Meaning of Independence
- National Anthem
- The Contributors
- Index
Summary
There to the sweet wild grass
And by verdant palm trees
Let's bend our steps for the last
Or by turbulent brown streams
Let's discuss our future hopes and dreams.
For the birds sing and the bees drone
And O, the fateful hour of Parting.
Do you remember that Sunday
That warm afternoon
In the enchanting month of May
When with a smile on your lips
And your crystal eyes searching mine
You pledged you'd be forever mine?
Now the birds sing and the bees drone
And O, the fateful hour of Parting.
Weep not, Amina
For Fate does true friends sever
And leaves them Hope
Their greatest friend forever
But time brings Age, ruler of Earthly Glories.
Time makes us old and leaves us memories.
Now the birds sing and the bees drone
And O, the fateful hour of Parting.
By yon grey clouds
Birds teach their young to fly
Helplessly hovering under Heaven
Until they leave the sky
But back to Earth like mortals they must part
Each on its own true bearing its little Life to start.
Now the birds sing and the bees drone
And O, the fateful hour of Parting.
You have determined
To set out for your people once more
Can I stop angry waves
From beating ashore?
Much as I need you now, they need you too.
Loyal must you be to them and true.
For the birds sing and the bees drone
And O, the fateful hour of Parting.
Caught in Love's tender trap
Did I mistakenly believe
That our future is without mishap?
Now we're doomed and I cannot retrieve.
I ask for nought but a relic from you
In the years to treasure, and our pledge to renew.
Now the birds sing and the bees drone
And O, the fateful hour of Parting.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Voices of GhanaLiterary Contributions to the Ghana Broadcasting System 1955–57, pp. 216 - 217Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2018