My relatives are dead. As for my friends,
My childhood friends, where are they?
Life has scattered them;
Scattered them like seeds blown by the wind.
I am alone. Noises rising from the city,
Its useless agitation, do not disturb me.
Easygomg, free and proud, I live in peace,
Protected from the world and all its struggles.
The season of blossoms and the season of apples
Unreel their gorgeous games hetero these eyes in vain;
I consider life and mankind in the mind;
My only intimates are hooks.
But now and then realities intrude,
Despite my taste for solitude.
Suddenly I feel my senses walte,
A great uneasiness invades.
Calling forth the times of douht
When mind and flesh come face to face,
I make the choice. And afterward, in pain
I feel the silent pounding of this solitary heart.
René Maran (1887 – 1960) Martinique
Translated by Ellen Conroy Kennedy
Source: The Negritude poets: an anthology of translations from the French by Ellen Conroy Kennedy, The Viking Press, 1975
Although he spent some of his childhood in Martinique, he was educated in France and served in the military in West Africa. He died in France. He was strongly anti-colonialist.
My childhood friends, where are they?
Life has scattered them;
Scattered them like seeds blown by the wind.
I am alone. Noises rising from the city,
Its useless agitation, do not disturb me.
Easygomg, free and proud, I live in peace,
Protected from the world and all its struggles.
The season of blossoms and the season of apples
Unreel their gorgeous games hetero these eyes in vain;
I consider life and mankind in the mind;
My only intimates are hooks.
But now and then realities intrude,
Despite my taste for solitude.
Suddenly I feel my senses walte,
A great uneasiness invades.
Calling forth the times of douht
When mind and flesh come face to face,
I make the choice. And afterward, in pain
I feel the silent pounding of this solitary heart.
René Maran (1887 – 1960) Martinique
Translated by Ellen Conroy Kennedy
Source: The Negritude poets: an anthology of translations from the French by Ellen Conroy Kennedy, The Viking Press, 1975
Although he spent some of his childhood in Martinique, he was educated in France and served in the military in West Africa. He died in France. He was strongly anti-colonialist.
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