[Many thanks to poet John R. Lee for bringing this item to our attention.] In his Book Review for Wick of the ArtsJim Kates explores the poems of Ida Faubert in Listen Islandt (Heart of the Islands) neatly translated by Danielle Legros Georges. Kates writes, “These poems are of their time and place—written in Haiti and France in the early twentieth century—yet they remain remarkably fresh.” Here are excerpts from Wick of the Arts.
Every now and then, we want to be reminded that poetry can be more than propaganda, autobiographical meandering, postcard-raising, or clever exercises in wordplay. That it can be a craft used – in Walter Cronkite’s wonderfully prosaic words – to change and illuminate our lives. A poem like this is often, paradoxically, in step with the fashions of our time, as are the poems of Ida Faubert, who lived from 1882 to 1969. Boston’s second poet laureate, Danielle Legros Georges , has brought us this news that remains news in a translation of most of the poems in Faubert’s 1939 book, Heart of the Islandswhich is here translated into English as The heart of the island. Whatever the ambiguity of the original title, in this book the island is Haiti, the heart is French.
We want the work of our writers today to be imbued with their identity. Faubert was born in Haiti and died in France. Her biculturalism may be the foundation of her work, but it doesn’t float on the surface. Too often, we think of Haiti only as a caricatured, poor victim, the land condemned internationally for more than two centuries for the insult of achieving its non-white Revolution. But this is a dangerous reduction of a much more complex reality. I know how pleasantly surprised I was just a few months ago when I saw an exhibit of Haitian surrealist art, an invaluable reminder of how culturally intertwined the island’s culture is in the fabric of that mission. civilizing the metropolitan French once prided themselves.
Faubert takes her place in that environment. That these poems are also of their time and place—written in Haiti and France in the early twentieth century—does not limit them. They stay impressively fresh. Faubert is not represented in the encyclopedia of the late Norman Shapiro, French poet of the nine centuries, although he himself was one of the heralds of Francophone Caribbean poetry in English translation. It may not be that she was not French enough for him, but perhaps too anti-Baudelairean, unrepresentative of the century in which she lived.
In her entry into The heart of the islandDanielle Legros Georges links Faubert’s poems to early nineteenth-century French Romantic poetry, but she fails to note that they derive even more deeply from a tradition that goes back to the High Renaissance flavor of Louise Labé and, in indeed, of classical origin. of Catullus and Sappho. [. . .]
“Given Faubert’s artistic sensibilities (and sometimes frustrated by them),” writes Legros Georges in her translator’s note, “I tried to translate her poems in as natural a verse as possible and in English of the 21st century USA”. She has made wise choices. In the above quatrain, she has replaced the density of sounds of the poet “voir luire le jour” with her own repetitions and cadences – “rest of the day”, “trembling . . . must. . . – that convey the urgency and formality of the original. These may seem obvious or trivial to the casual reader, but they are the work of a careful ear and pen. [. . .]
For full review see https://artsfuse.org/260149/poetry-review-island-heart-the-dance-of-passion/
