I've been working on translating a short Manding song. It talks about an attractive woman whom the singer is in love with. But he keeps interjecting "Apolo.” Now what exactly is a Greco-Roman god or the space programme doing in a West African song? As far as I've been able to find out, it's used as a poetic metaphor. To him, she seems completely out of reach, like going to the moon, but perhaps it can still happen somehow. Apolo! I think that's really awesome! #Ethnomusicology #Language