Coriolan Ardouin
La Brise au tombeau d'Emma / The Breeze at Emma's Tomb
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Translation By
Ann Delva
Translator Biography
Ann Delva is a student at Stockton University with a major in Accounting and a minor in French. As a Business student, she feels it is important to be knowledgeable in different languages. As a Haitian, French was one of the languages spoken at home along with Creole. She appreciates Ardouin’s appeal to the senses: readers feel they are in the landscape he describes.
Publication Date
2023
Description
English language translation of Coriolan Ardouin's "La Brise au tombeau d'Emma." Translated by Ann Delva and read by Isaac Kpoka.
La Brise au tombeau d'Emma / The Breeze at Emma's Tomb
English language translation of Coriolan Ardouin's "La Brise au tombeau d'Emma." Translated by Ann Delva and read by Isaac Kpoka.
Original Work
La Brise au tombeau d'Emma
Retirez-vous, aquilon, venez, vent du midi (Cantique des Cantiques, chapt. 4)
Emma, lorsque tous deux assis dans une yole,
Nous voguions sur les mers mon front sur ton épaule
Et le tien sur mon cœur, oh! C'était de beaux jours!
Tu me disais, voyons courir les blanches lames,
Tandis que s'élevaient et retombaient les rames:
"Ecoutons soupirer la brise des amours."
Depuis nous avons vu s'écrouler bien des choses;
Le soir a détaché du rosier bien des roses;
Et cette brise, Emma, si douce sur les flots,
Je l'entends aujourd'hui, pleurant et solitaire...
Ah! Si l'on peut encore ouïr dessous de la terre,
Écoutez soupirer la brise des tombeaux.
Poem by Coriolan Ardouin
(Anthologized in Morpeau, 51)
Translated Work
The Breeze at Emma’s Tomb
Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! (Song of Solomon, chapt. 4)
Emma, when we sat together in a skiff,
We sailed the seas, my forehead on your shoulder
And yours on my heart, oh! Those were the days!
You said, seeing the white wave go round,
‘While the oars rose and fell:
"Let’s listen to the sigh of love’s breeze.”
Since then we have seen many things collapse;
Evening has plucked many roses from the rose bush;
And this breeze, Emma, so soft on the waves,
I hear it today, as I cry alone...
Ah! If you can still hear underground,
Listen to the sigh of the tomb’s breeze.
Translated by Anna Delva, 2023