Poem by Leon Laleau
Trahison
Ce coeur obsédant, qui ne correspond
Pas à mon langage ou à mes costumes
Et sur lequel mordent, comme un crampon,
Des sentiments d’emprunt et des coutumes
D’Europe, sentez-vous cette souffrance
Et ce désespoir à nul autre égal
D’apprivoiser, avec des mots de France,
Ce coeur qui m’est venu du Sénégal?
Betrayal
This implacable heart, which matches
neither my tongue or my clothes,
after which bites, like the hinges of a trap
the borrowed sentiments and customs
of Europe—do you sense this suffering,
this despair, which is like nothing else,
breaking in with words from France
this heart, of mine, come from Senegal?
—-by Léon Laleau, translation Michelle Cahill
Léon Laleau was a Haitian politician, writer, diplomat. Born in Port- au-Prince he studied science and law, serving as Minister for Foreign Affairs. He signed the 1934 accord which, at that time, ceased the United States’ occupation of Haiti.
