Hàïti a la dérive / Haiti Adrift

French

Voici mon pays garni de dents et de pointes
pays barbelé de pied en cap, monde noir
de la rage et du rire amer des Haïtiens.
Haïti sans dimanche au bout de ses peines,
le grand malheur à dompter, volcan endormi
sans réveil prévu à l’horloge de ses cendres !

RENÉ DEPESTRE, Anthologie personnelle
(Arles, Actes Sud © 1993, p. 45)
REPRINTED WITH GALLIMARD’S AND THE AUTHOR’S PERMISSION

English Translation

This is my country decked in prongs and spikes
barbed-wired from top to bottom, a world black
with the fury and bitter laughter of Haitians.
Haiti without Sunday, at the end of its rope,
a beast of misery to be tamed, a sleeping volcano
without a foreboding alarm to rouse it from the ashes!

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