Ghetto - Guy Tirolien

Why should I confine myself

to the image

they would fix me in?

For pity's sake,

I'd suffocate

segregated as exotic.

I'm no idol made of ebony

breathing phony incense

in museums of the primitive.

I’m no sideshow cannibal

rolling ivory eyeballs

to make the kiddies shiver.

If I shout a shout

that bums my throat,

it's when my belly

feels my brothers' hunger;

and if sometimes

I howl with pain

it's when my toe

is stuck beneath somebody’s boot.

The nightingale sings many notes,

my monotone laments are done.

I'm no perspiring actor,

arms lifted to the sky,

sobbing out his pain

before the camera's eye.

I'm frozen in no pose of militance

or of damnation either.

I'm a living creature,

beast of prey

ever poised to leap

to seize life

which mocks at death;

to pounce on joy

which needs no passport;

to spring at love

when it happens by my door.

I'll talk of Beethoven,

stone deaf amid the tumult,

because it was for me,

yes, me (who could understand him better),

that he unleashed his storms.

I'll sing of Rimbaud

who wanted to be black

to speak to man

of primogenial matters.

I’ll praise Matisse

and Braque and then Picasso

for having found

the ancient secrets of

the rhythmic song of life

beneath the rigidness

of elemental forms.

Yes, I'll praise mankind,

all men!

I go forth to them

with a heart full of song.

hands heavy with friendship,

for they are made in my image.

---

Guy Tirolien (1917 - 1988) Guadeloupe [French Terrirtory]

Translated by Ellen Conroy Kennedy

Source: The Negritude poets: an anthology of translations from the French, Ellen Conroy Kennedy, Viking Press, 1975