Léon-Gontran DAMAS is considered one of the three leaders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature. Influenced by the poets of the Harlem Renaissance, the aim of the Négritude poets was to debunk the myth of European cultural superiority. In 1937, Damas lit the Francophone world on fire when he published Pigments, a collection of poems that became a rallying cry for the colonized and oppressed. The following poems are excerpted from Graffiti, a collection published in 1952, which continues Damas' discussion of the reprecussions of colonization on a more intimate level.

Kirsten HALLING translated these poems from the French. She is an Assistant Professor of French and Francophone studies at Wright State University in Fairborn Ohio.

ALREADY

nearly three years ago
ferociously hostile
to any passion
to the smallest tenderness

my heart has only
to wallow
in the rough calm and hard
memories of days
that it would have been better off
never in a human life
having seen shine


DEPUIS BIENTOT

déjà
trois ans
farouchement hostile
à tout élan
au moindre épanchement

le cœur n’a plus
qu’à se complaire
dans le rude calme et dur
regret de jours
qu’il eut mieux valu
n’avoir jamais d’une vie d’homme
vu luire

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