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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The translators wish to thank the Cultural Services of the French embassy for the Hemingway grant that furthered their work on The Complete Poetry of Aimé Césaire.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATORS
A. James Arnold is professor emeritus of French at the University of Virginia and a member of the Manuscrits Francophones du Sud research group of the Institut des Textes et Manuscrits Modernes (ITEM) at the École Normale Supérieure (Paris). He edited the three-volume History of Literature in the Caribbean for the International Comparative Literature Association (1994-2001) and the centennial edition of Aimé Césaire’s literary works for the Association Universitaire de la Francophonie and ITEM (2014). Since 2009 he has been engaged with Clayton Eshleman in making the original texts of Aimé Césaire’s poetic œuvre available in English. The Complete Poetry is the capstone of that project.
Clayton Eshleman is a poet, translator, essayist, and editor. He is the author of 19 collections of poetry and the primary American translator of César Vallejo, Aimé Césaire, and Antonin Artaud. Eshleman is also the first poet to realize a huge, researched and imaginative project in prose and poetry on Ice Age cave art: Juniper Fuse: Upper Paleolithic Imagination & the Construction of the Underworld. He was also the founder and editor of Caterpillar magazine (1967-1973) and Sulfur magazine (1981-2000). He lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan with his wife Caryl. His website is: www.claytoneshleman.com
INDEX
A bit of light that descends the springhead of a gaze 359
A BLANK TO FILL ON THE TRAVEL PASS OF POLLEN 639
A fighter he blows on his brands 471
a flight 727
a fog arose 611
AFRICA 629
After I had by iron by fire by ash visited the most celebrated places in history after I had by ash fire earth and stars courted with my wild dog and leech-like claws the authoritarian field of protoplasms 321
AFTERWORD 305
against all that which weighs leper currency 637
Aguacero 339
Ah! 633
A hedge of young women arborescently 857
A LITTLE SONG FOR CROSSING A BIG RIVER 641
All that from a cove combined to form your breasts all the hibiscus bells all the pearl oysters all the jumbled tracks that form a mangrove 385
ALL THE WAY FROM AKKAD FROM ELAM FROM SUMER 399
All those whose hearts are an inkblot in a child’s copybook all those whose word is an embrace broken in a final effort of terrestrial gigantism 405
always, not so much lively as beautiful, the air, save for this breath that the true earth 723
Among me 481
AMONG OTHER MASSACRES 331
An atrocious light appears 563
And behold through my hearing woven with crunchings 69
And by the sun installing under my skin a factory of power and eagles 449
And I saw a first animal 347
and I saw the byzantine tale 799
And now 379
AND SOUNDING THE SAND WITH THE BAMBOO OF MY DREAMS 595
AND THE DOGS WERE SILENT 169
And the hills raised up 489
and the musky morning in the mangrove warmed a handful of sun 543
And why not the hedge of geysers the obelisks of hours the smooth cry of clouds 91
And without her deigning to seduce the jailers 353
Anguish you shall not lower your floodgates into the reach of my throat 557
ANNUNCIATION 133
ANTIPODAL DWELLING 457
APOTHEOSIS 377
A robust thunderbolt threatening over 463
As for me should they grab my leg 431
As soon as I press the little pawl that I have under my tongue at a spot that escapes all detection all microscopic bombardment all dowser divination 439
A tree thrusts against a wall its quarrel of twisted pipe 343
AT SEA 505
At the end of the small hours burgeoning with frail coves the hungry Antilles 13
at the foot of stammering volcanoes 697
AT THE LOCKS OF THE VOID 435
Audacity that is what shall console us least 329
AUTOMATIC CRYSTAL SET 119
Bahii-a 795
BARBARITY 465
BATEKE 97
BATUQUE 153
Bays winged I walked on the rumbling heart of the excellent spring 319
BEAT IT NIGHT DOG 553
BEAUTIFUL SPURTED BLOOD 579
between two puffs of personal birds 721
BEYOND 103
BIRDS 545
BIRTHS 501
Blazon of blows on the shattered body of dreams 605
BLUES 339
Broken 501
&n
bsp; Brother for you I have examined your bird aspects 819
BUCOLIC 587
BUT THERE IS THIS HURT 555
but the smell came 681
But who goes there 509
By the time that the senator 373
CALM 391
Captivating the blood the muscles 475
Carnassial fists stained by a cracked sky 375
CHEVELURE 367
CHITCHAT 849
Circle upon circle 575
clamors clamors 571
Clouds derail with a blowtorch! Rain violent girl unravel your shredded linen! 583
COMMONPLACE 445
Commonplace the night cake decorated with little candles made of fireflies 445
CONFIGURATIONS 865
CONQUEST OF DAWN 121
CONVERSATION WITH MANTONICA WILSON 775
CORPSE OF A FRENZY 567
COUNTING-OUT RHYME 531
CRATERS 847
Crucible in which is born the world hair humus of the first earth 457
Crumbling of dungeons 485
CRUSADE OF SILENCE 379
Dalaba Pita Labé Mali Timbé 537
dans l’épice grand large 565
Day o day of New York and the Soukala 165
DEATH AT DAWN 471
deformations 733
DELICACY OF A MUMMY 413
DEMONS 415
Despair has no name 683
DEVOURER 317
DIFFERENT HORIZON 469
DISASTER 325
disorder organizes itself as an appraiser of hills 665
DWELLING I 345
dwelling made of not knowing which way to turn 383
DYALI 837
Easy prolongation of deglutition by the obscene trismegistic mouth of a brown-bellied marsh 355
ELEGY-EQUATION 493
ETHIOPIA… 799
Every insect counted (the metal of the grass has seized their throats) 325
Everything that ever was torn 517
Exceed exude exult Elan 863
EX-VOTO FOR A SHIPWRECK 395
Eyes attached to their tall hypertrophied peduncle cashew-tree and tannin pus eyes fixed on me like the gaze of bad fruit like slaughterhouse flies like a justiciary’s beard 433
FANGS 561
FAVOR OF THE TRADE WINDS 861
FAVOR OF TREE SAPS 603
FERMENT 589
FERRAMENTS 529
file of okapis quick to weep the river with fleshy fingers 115
flesh rich to the teeth shavings of loyal flesh 167
flight of cays of manchineels of pebbles of stream 127
FOR A FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 863
FORFEITURE 439
For nibbling at a sunrise 849
From far to near from near to far the circumciseds’ sistrum and a sun outside principles 381
FROM MY STUD FARMS 583
from one grievance to the next 853
from the depth of the furious piling up of appalling dreams 103
from the depths of a country of silence 551
From the lagoon rises an odor of blood and an army of flies peddling to women the fraud of menopausal jewels 327
GALLANTRY OF HISTORY 363
GENESIS FOR WIFREDO 779
Getting under way isn’t done at bullet train speed 843
Got to know how to interrogate their double 829
GUNNERY WARNING 67
Hail birds who cleave and scatter the circle of herons 473
HAIL TO GUINEA 537
Hard night starless flag staff. I am on very bad terms with space. So what 351
HARSH SEASON 575
HAVE NO MERCY FOR ME 87
Hélé helélé the King is a great king 395
hello hello one more night stop guessing it’s me the cave man there are cicadas that deafen both their life and their death 119
he pondered the logic of the swamp’s teeth 745
He sought no alibi 823
hey connoisseur of knowing 777
holy shit they have secured the universe and everything weighs—everything—the plumb line of gravity having been installed at the facile bottom of solidity 357
HORSE 453
Houses out here at the foot of the mountains 505
HOWLING 473
How many rivers 831
I am a memory that does not reach the threshold 333
I am not nailed to the most absurd of rocks 845
I am not one of those who believe that a city should not rise to catastrophe one more turn of the loins of the neck of the storey will trigger 129
i come across my skeleton 753
I conjure you 101
IDYLL 423
I embalmed my severed head in a very thin skin 413
If my thought borrows the wings of the menfenil 555
If we wish to mate the bee again in Campeachy wood blood 851
I have had occasion in the bewilderment of cities to search for the right animal to adore 401
I have with my strict saliva kept the blood liquid 835
i inhabit a sacred wound 653
I, LAMINARIA 645
impotence of an utterance or very real horses 677
INCONGRUOUS BUILDERS 789
INDECENT BEHAVIOR 351
INDIVISIBLE 637
IN MEMORY OF A BLACK UNION LEADER 619
In search of my steps 377
In Seville the peep-sight pierced forehead of the last bull 407
INTERCESSOR 387
In the foreground and in longitudinal flight a dried-up brook drowsy roller of obsidian pebbles 435
in the spicy open sea 565
in those days time was the parasol of a very beautiful woman 785
IN TRUTH… 643
INVESTITURE 127
I PERSEUS CENTUPLICATING MYSELF 591
i recognize them 737
I saw myself crossing a river 641
I sing all things more beautiful 513
I struck its legs and its arms. They became iron paws ending in very powerful claws covered with supple little green feathers providing them with a noticeable but well-designed sheath 415
It does not suffice 861
It is a Seine night 805
It is midnight 371
IT IS MYSELF, TERROR, IT IS MYSELF 559
it is not always a good idea to splash about in just any brackish pond 673
IT IS THE COURAGE OF MEN THAT IS DISLOCATED 581
It is the obligatory passage that from here I reject 821
It is this fine film on the swirl of the wine 531
it is unfurnishable 703
It is well I shall re-enter only savage hairy with thorns from the paths 593
its share of the sun? 709
its trunk encircled by bonds 595
It was doubtless that woman whose date and place of apparition the astrologer and the geomancy had revealed to me 443
I who Krakatoa 497
Keep smoking swamp 87
keystone 781
lands that leap very high 597
Last rattle of the dying man in the last ray of the sun 461
LAY OF ERRANTRY 517
Let no tempest subside let no rock stagger 619
Let’s not placate the day but go out face exposed 361
LETTER FROM BAHIA-OF-ALL-SAINTS 795
LET US OFFER OUR HEARTS TO THE SUN 787
let us take up again 741
LIKE A MISUNDERSTANDING OF SALVATION 853
LIMINAL VAMPIRE 563
LONGITUDE 489
LOST BODY 497
LYNCH I 315
LYNCH II 375
MAGIC 311
Make, around me, around my side 591
MARCH OF PERTURBATIONS 463
MARINE INTIMACY 585
MARSH 417
Master of the three paths, you have before you a man who has walked a lot 399
MEMORIAL FOR LOUIS DELGRÈS 611
memory honoring the landscape 725
MERCILESS GREAT BLOOD 551
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MILLIBARS OF THE STORM 361
MISSISSIPI 337
MOBILE FLAIL OF STRANGE DREAMS 573
MONSOON-MANSION 541
mornes are not a convulsion of giant birds 719
most high found smile lost 573
murmur 865
My great wounded statue a stone to the forehead my great flesh inattentive by day to pitiless seeds my great nocturnal 109
My horse stumbles over skulls hopscotched in rust 453
my people 631
MY PROFOUND DAY’S CLEAR PASSAGE 565
my very worn coin face suddenly rediscovered in your diggings 541
My water won’t listen 459
NEW BOUNTY 791
New mokatine blood ringing at meat o’clock clings to branches of the vegetal sun; they await their turn 133
NEW YEAR 393
Night forked stigmata 469
nights in these parts are unpretentious nights 705
NIGHT TOM-TOM 115
NOCTURNAL CROSSING 329
NOCTURNE OF A NOSTALGIA 547
No doubt it is absurd to hail this thrust in mid-ocean 577
no more alburnum 779
NON-VICIOUS CIRCLE 467
NOON KNIVES 419
NOTEBOOK OF A RETURN TO THE NATIVE LAND 13
nothing less to report than 773
Not to despair of fireflies 827
OBSIDIAN STELE FOR ALIOUNE DIOP 819
ODE TO GUINEA 449
of being and of thirst 855
off and on i lose it 739
oh spears of our wine-pure bodies 117
oh surge without number without dust harbinger of every vinous word 95
O mountain oh dolomites bird heart under my childlike hands 323
ON A METAMORPHOSIS 461
one must know how to cross the entire expanse of the blood 747
only the laborer’s sledge of torpor to maneuver 687
… ON THE STATE OF THE UNION 625
OUT OF ALIEN DAYS 631
Out of their torments men carved a flower that they perched on 393
PASSAGE 821
PASSAGES 783
PASSWORD 427
PATIENCE OF SIGNS 569
Peasant strike the soil with your pickhoe 409
PENNANT 407
PERDITION 99
PERMIT 355
PHANTASMS 843
PHANTOMS 571
PHRASE 91
POEM FOR THE DAWN 93
PRECEPT 593
PRELIMINARY QUESTION 431
PRESENCE 485
promises that burst into tiny rockets 661
prowler 547
RABORDAILLE 785
RAIN 321
RAPACIOUS SPACE 841
The Complete Poetry of Aimé Césaire Page 72