Des cheveux que je lisse
que je relisse
qui reluisent
maintenant qu'il m'en coûte
de les avoir crépus
Dans une longue carapace de laine
mon cou s'engouffre
la main s'énerve
et mes orteils se rappellent
la chaude exhalaison des mornes
Et mon être frigorifié
Et becs de gaz
qui rendent plus tristes
ces nuits au bout desquelles
occidentalement
avance mon ombre
pareille à ma légende
d'homme-singe
(Léon Gontran DAMAS, PiGMENTS, Présence Africaine, 1972, 2003, 2005, p. 61)
* * *
Hair I smooth
and smooth again
gleams now
since it pains me
when it's nappy
My neck engulfed
in long carapace of wool
the hand fidgets
while my toes recall
the warmth of West Indian hillocks
My being
refrigerated
Jets of gas
make them all the sadder
these nights at the end of which
my shadow
moves forward
occidentally
like the legend
of my ape-man past
(Traduction en anglais de " PAREiLLE à MA LéGENDE" par Ellen Conroy Kennedy in "Black World",
a Johnson publication, vol.XXI, n°. 3, january 1972)
* * *
Hair that I smooth
that I resmooth
that shines
now that it costs me
to have it kinky
In a long woolen shell
my neck disappears
my hand gets worked up
and my toes remember
the warm exhalation of mornes
And my being frozen
And gas lamps
make sadder still
these nights at the end of which
westernly
my shadow advances
true to my legend
of monkey-man
(Translation by Alexandra Lillehei, "Pigments in Translation", A thesis submitted to the faculty of Wesleyan University, Connecticut April, 2011)