Dust to dust and ashes to ashes
was not said of the fine dust
which was blown and now in our entrails
It remains forever relevant
forever in the hearts purer
In the souls fresher
in the minds uncorrupted
Behind the veil I see
a psyche leaves its body,
dark skin so tall that penetrates the skies
A master builder of the times
who once lived in a coast of gold
south of the Sahara
where the Greenwich meridian cuts across
The light at the great hall dimming
Oh Legon loses its own, a professor, a composer
A maestro and father to ethno music
Great masters never fall
they sleep the long sleep
The sleep of the fathers, the ancient ones
We will mourn not your loss
Because we still have them
What you left mankind
What you stood for
Your idles, dreams
Your handiworks, deeds
Oh master, master composer,
master of the arts you are
Nature in harmony you left us
In letters, signs
keys, lines
sounds fine,
tunes in rhymes
They vibrate and echo at the same time
They float and navigate tribes, cultures
A soul that made audible and plain the language of souls
the messages of the powers that be you captured
to shape a whole generation, an era, a civilization a
time
There is beauty in harmony of notes
but you led us to unity through musical harmony
Oh master, master mind
Once I sought to see you
but now I have all of you even those who think in line
with you
I wanted to hear your voice
but now have it even with the echoes of your voices
I wanted to feel your presence
but now I have more to feel than that,
your overwhelming influence across the seas and beyond the spheres
In the mind’s eye we still see you
A life like a river which flowed in the dirty boisterous
waves
yet never lost its colour, fresh smell and taste.
Oh life is death, death’s liveliness and youth, its storm
before the calm.
Death is life, life before another begins.
In death is life, a transformed life.
Life never ceases, it pauses several times to renew
itself
and transformed into other garbs when death calls
giving way to other different forms of life.
Legon will arise
Ethno music will survive
Whatever you loved will still smile
Wo jogban Emeritus Prof. Kwabena Nketia
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