Although the following excerpts from two Kreyòl poems by Haitian writers refer to calamities other than the recent earthquake, they speak across decades of misery to the hope for a better life.
.
Pou fèt mwen m’ta renmen
Tou peyi-a
Kouvri ak rivyè k’rekonmanse chante
Pou tout wout dle ap rezonnen.
.
For my birthday I want
The whole country
Covered with rivers that are singing again
So that all the waterways resound
With the shouts of children bathing.
Boadiba, from “Madam La Prezidant”
_______________________________________
.
Nuit-la pwès ; nuit-la kòryas. Mentou, eswa-
nou sere lan fon kè-nou.
Youn lalin grimèl ap balize dèyè mòn; li
fouke youn touf nwaj san ganson.
Chak swa, hou lòyen zetwal.
.
The night is thick, the night is tough. But still our hope
is kept safe in the depths of our hearts.
A high yellow moon is rising behind the hill; it
grabs a tuft of naked trouserless cloud.
Each evening we eye the stars.
Franketyèn, from Dezafi
_______________________________________
* The poems and translations are quoted in George Lang, “A Primer of Haitian Literature,” Research in African Literature 35.2 (2004): 137-38.
Camille Martin
http://www.camillemartin.ca
.
Pou fèt mwen m’ta renmen
Tou peyi-a
Kouvri ak rivyè k’rekonmanse chante
Pou tout wout dle ap rezonnen.
.
For my birthday I want
The whole country
Covered with rivers that are singing again
So that all the waterways resound
With the shouts of children bathing.
Boadiba, from “Madam La Prezidant”
_______________________________________
.
Nuit-la pwès ; nuit-la kòryas. Mentou, eswa-
nou sere lan fon kè-nou.
Youn lalin grimèl ap balize dèyè mòn; li
fouke youn touf nwaj san ganson.
Chak swa, hou lòyen zetwal.
.
The night is thick, the night is tough. But still our hope
is kept safe in the depths of our hearts.
A high yellow moon is rising behind the hill; it
grabs a tuft of naked trouserless cloud.
Each evening we eye the stars.
Franketyèn, from Dezafi
_______________________________________
* The poems and translations are quoted in George Lang, “A Primer of Haitian Literature,” Research in African Literature 35.2 (2004): 137-38.
Camille Martin
http://www.camillemartin.ca
Rogue Embryo 