33. Oumou SANGARE - Saa Magni (Death Is Terrible), Al Baqi (The Everlasting), Mali.
After my trip down memory lane last week I wanted to continue to hear music that made feel like I was in a different place. Culture is great for that so I hunted through my stash and found a compilation called African Twarang. So I am so mega excited to find out about this artist. You can learn more about Oumou Sangare here, doesn't she sound amazing. If you venture into her other songs let me know what else you find. Check out the song and the lyrics are below as well as on you tube. When I used to listen to this before I would imagine it was a kind of work song. But its totally not that at all. Its a very real look at how death is experienced by some of us.
O death; O death
Death is so harsh
Death is so cruel
Death who struck down Amadou Ba Guindo
But spares no creature
Nothing can stop it
Not even fame
Or having many children
Great riches and many friends
Amadou is gone
And when I go to Douentza I will not see him again
He will never be seen again in Bamako
In Douentza Tenin Ongoïna cries for you
Whilst in Bamako Amadou cries for you
As Adja' cries for you
Your widow Fanta cries for her missing husband
For Guindo has disappeared, struck down by treacherous death
In Bamako your old friend Alou Tracré misses you
How bitter is death, how bitter separation
It is hard to break the links (of friendship)
How hard it is to be separated from one's people, Guindo
But death spares no one
The Grim Reaper of hope did not spare Amadou Guindo
If it did not spare the Prophet Mohammed
Just as it struck down Amadou Chérif
Leaving his father Bouba in pain
May his soul rest in peace
How harsh is separation, how harsh death
And merciless death strikes without distinction
Villainous death crouches at a bend in the path, lying in wait for us
May God preserve us from it
But death spares no one
It strikes in the prime of life
Perfidious death crouches at a bend in the path
O death; O death
You did not spare Guindo
No creature can escape you
O death; O death, how you are cruel
I find it hard to leave on this note. I appreciate the rawness and harshness of the lyrics - delivered in such a beautiful melody. As I listen my heart is thinking of eternal life.
According to my source the 96th name Al Baqi is what eternally remains. It is the everlasting, continuous, abiding duration of the real. It is revealed in the process of fana and baqa, dissolving the false and realising the true self. According to Sufi teachings fana is what never was. What never was can be said to die since its existence is derivative and passed away. Baqa is what always was, always is and ever shall be. Thus, al baqi includes pre-eternity and post eternity. There is a physical plane root meaning of al Baqi “to stay in a place”. It is firmly established without change in space and time. Its nature returns you to the eternal and to love. Time is continuous, without beginning or end and cannot be divided into specific segments.