Paul Boccaccio

Nyuni ya Layali Ewe nyumi ya layali pokea zangu salamu miye kula huwa sili menivamu muadhamu kama nanga ya jabali nimezidiwa ghulamu. Barua yangu pokea uyasome yalo humu yapate kukuelea yakuingie timamu mno tena niwilia kisoma zangu salamu. Nijile kwako, mwandani, ni uswahibu napenda meambatana na ini mahaba yamenikunda kama nswi baharini na kwangu yamenitanda. Wala badali sioni kwa huku kutatizana metuva kote tundani na pia sikumuona ila ni wewe changoni mpenzi meambatana. Changoni meambatana waniumiza zumbembe shamshamu meshikana yamemea kama pembe dirika dirika nana zanifumbe zako ‘kombe.

Bird of the Nights O you bird of the nights, receive my greetings. I do not eat at all. You have penetrated me, proud one, like an anchor into a rock. I, your slave, am conquered. Accept my letter, read its contents, so that it may be clear to you, and enter your mind entirely, forgive me many things again, while reading my greetings. I came to you, my friend, it was your friendship I needed, you embraced me round the waist. Love has enveloped me like a fish by the ocean, and has covered me all over. Nor do I see any change, in this getting entangled in one another. I grazed everywhere in the fruit, and I have seen no other one except you; in the belly, my lover, you embraced me. In the belly you embraced me, you hurt me, my lover, you held me with great strength, it shone like ivory. Come, come, my girl, let your lips enfold me.

—unknown Swahili author, translated by Jan Knappert in the anthology Chagua la Maua, or A Choice of Flowers