Secousses, and: Tremors
- Secousses, and: Tremors
Evelyne Trouillot, Haiti, poetry, Haitian literature, Haitian earthquake
Secousses
La terre a soulevé mon cœurd'un mouvement sec et violentelle l'a déchirééparpillant mille morceauxcomme larmes d'oiseaux errantsaux quatre vents de mon îleet depuischaque nuitj'entends les battementshésiter à mi-cheminentre décombreset étoiles
Tremors
The earth wrenched my heartin a quick and violent gestureripping it apartscattering thousands of pieces [End Page 480] like the tears of wandering birdsacross the four corners of my islandand since thenevery nightI hear it beatinghesitating halfwaybetween rubbleand stars
Reprinted by permission from Evelyne Trouillot (2014), Par la fissure de mes mots. Paris: Éditions Bruno Doucey. Translated by Nathan H. Dize. © Éditions Bruno Doucey, 2014. [End Page 481]
Nathan H. Dize is a PhD candidate in the Department of French and Italian at Vanderbilt University, where he specializes in Haitian literature and history. He is content curator, translator, and editor of the digital history project A Colony in Crisis: The Saint-Domingue Grain Shortage of 1789. He coedits the "Haiti in Translation" interview series for H-Haiti. His translation of Makenzy Orcel's The Immortals (Les Immortelles, 2011) and his translation of Louis Joseph Janvier's Haiti for the Haitians are forthcoming. He has published articles in the Journal of Haitian Studies, Francoshpères, sx archipelagos, and the Journal of Haitian History. He tweets @NathanHDize.
