Translation: Poems: Sunjata

Last summer, one of the books I picked up while in France at the James Baldwin: International Traveler conference in Montpellier was Sunjata's Sabir: Slam Poésie, published by Vents d'ailleurs in La Roque-D'Anthéron in 2014. The publisher's name means Winds from elsewhere, and the town, which I had to look up, is a "commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France," according to its Wikipedia page, not far to the east of Montpellier. I knew nothing about the writer, but his name, invoking the great king and founder of the Empire of Mali, and the book's title, with the first word translated as "mumbo jumbo," followed by the appellation "slam poetry," caught my attention, so I picked it up. Searching online, I found another book by Sunjata, Kalachnikov Blues, a 2009 detective novel issued by the same publisher.

Sunjata, it turns out, is the pen name of Soumaïla Koly, a writer, musician, filmmaker, producer, and actor of Ivorian descent born in 1971 in Paris. His education in theater began in the troupe Kotéba d'Abidjan, with whom he began acting while still a child, and he later studied at the Université Paul-Valéry de Montpellier and Louis Lumière in Paris. Sunjata has released three hip hop CDs, two solo with the music company Blaxploitation, and one with the group Liste noir (Black List) from Artikal/Night and Day, and has directed several documentary films. The novel received the 2010 Prix Littéraire Continental in the New Talent category. Since 2013 he has been the spokesperson for the city of Lodève, and director of L'Espace Nelson-Mandela there. 

A glance through Sabir: Slam poésie indicates that all of the poems are meant to be performed live. Reading a few aloud, I can hear their close relationship to American slam poems. They utilize similar internal rhythms and rhymes, with often razor-sharp wordplay, and most aim to make strong political statements. In sum they differ from the various conventions of French poetry that I usually have encountered, especially in translation. They are clearly spoken-word poems, with the speed and force of that genre, and some are quite powerful. I have chosen one that does not rely so much on verbal play but which is far more straightforward and represents an overt diasporic gesture. 

One of the points that I made during my comments on race and translation at the Thinking Its Presence panel organized by Jen Hofer was that in the Anglophone world--and this includes the Anglophone African Diaspora, including Black Americans--is we have a limited view of the lives of other Black people across the globe in part because so few of their works get translated. Music travels, certainly, as does film, but how much--and how little--do we know about the world in which someone like Sunjata lives? We can infer a great deal from the parallels between French and American society, but what do we lose when we cannot read his words directly, even with the slippages that translation by its nature entails? When one considers the ongoing tensions in Western societies around race, nationality, religion, class, and other identity formations, shouldn't we want to pay a bit more attention? 

At the same time, as the poem below, "Up to Obama" indicates, he is quite aware of Black/American history, the eccentric French spellings notwithstanding (I have left all of the original orthography as it appeared in French, with corrections only in English), and the inspiration and power that he and other Black Diasporic people draw from it. This is not to deproblematize the Obama presidency or its continuation of some of the worst aspects of American imperialism and recolonization, but rather to note that even among his black and brown critics, Obama remains a powerful symbol, in part because of the tradition that made him possible and which he in many ways represents. I'll now end my long introduction and just present Sunjata's poem: "Jusqu'à Obama" (Up to Obama)."

JUSQU'À OBAMA / UP TO OBAMA

La barbe de Lincoln Le treizième amendement ratifié par le Congrès Le bicorne de Marcus Garvey La blackstar line contre vents et marées Le reniement de la nationalité américaine de Web Du Bois Le manteau de Rosa Parks La moustache de Martin Luther King La bague de Malcom x Le visage tuméfié de Rodney King Les lunettes de Malik el Shabazz L'afro de Stokely Carmichael Le poing levé des athlètes de Mexico L'assissinat de JFK Les freedom riders de Montgomery L'assissinat de Martin Luther King L'assissinat de Malcom x Le cuir noir du Black Panthers Party Le dashiki de Ron Karenga L'impudence de Cassius Clay L'impudence de Mohamed Ali Rumble in the jungle Ali/Foreman à Kinshasa Ali boma yé! Ali tue-le. Foreman KO en lingala! Le Vietnam L'humiliation vietcong La bannière étoilée se pare de oripeaux du drame, Les poèmes de Maya Angelou La NAACP Huey Newton qui crame Soul on ice d'Eldridge Cleaver L'assissinat de Fred Hampton Mumia Abu-Jamal La gouaille de Rap Brown Le cointelpro et l'implacable J. Edgar Hoover La répression des droits civiques à Jackson Le sacerdoce du révérend Jesse Jackson Le black business d'Andrew Young Les soul fictions de Chester Himes Say loud i am black proud La blackpoitation de John Shaft Le groove rageur d'Isaac Hayes Gil Scott Heron Devines qui vient dîner ce soir? Un noir! Sidney Poitiers estampillé blackstar Le noeud pap' d'Elijah Mohamed Le délire de Louis Farrakhan Oprah Winfrey Show Cosby Show La geste de la liberté de l'Alabama à l'Obama.

The beard of Lincoln The Thirteenth Amendment ratified by Congress The cocked hat of Marcus Garvey The Blackstar Line against winds and tides The renunciation of American nationality by W. E. B. Du Bois The coat of Rosa Parks The mustache of Martin Luther King The ring of Malcolm X The swollen face of Rodney King The glasses of Malik el Shabazz The afro of Stokely Carmichael The raised fists of the athletes in Mexico The assassination of JFK The Freedom Riders of Montgomery The assassination of Martin Luther King The assassination of Malcolm X The black leather of the Black Panther Party The dashiki of Ron Karenga The impudence of Cassius Clay The impudence of Muhammad Ali Rumble in the Jungle Ali/Foreman in Kinshasa Ali boma yé! Ali kills him. Foreman KO'ed in lingala! Vietnam The Vietcong humiliation The Star-Spangled Banner adornes itself with dramatic rags The poems of Maya Angelou The NAACP Huey Newton who's burning up Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver The assassination of Fred Hampton Mumia Abu-Jamal The joaning of Rap Brown Cointelpro and the implacable J. Edgar Hoover The repression of Jackson's civil rights The vocation of Reverend Jesse Jackson The black business of Andrew Young The soul fictions of Chester Himes Say it out loud, I'm black and I'm proud The blacksploitation of John Shaft The angry groove of Isaac Hayes Gil Scott-Heron Can you guess who's coming to dinner? A black man! Sidney Poitier stamped as a black star The sacred knot of Elijah Muhammad The madness of Louis Farrakhan Oprah Winfrey Show Cosby Show The gesture of liberty from Alabama to Obama.

Here is a different sort of poem from the same volume. It has such swift and playful rhymes and homophony (début/eut/haut/beaux/débats/débit, etc.), along the lines both of hip hop and (in)famous French writers like Paul Verlaine ("Chanson d'automne") and Raymond Roussel it would be almost impossible to render perfectly into English. Here's a rough version, with some English-language music to parallel, however poorly, the French.

PALABRES / PALAVER

Au début il y eut Des hauts des bas Des beaux débats À haut débit C'était de bons débuts Des baux des buts Des bruits d'ébats De gros débris Des bris des bras Des gros dégâts Des aaah!!! des oooh!!! Face au tourment des maux Le détournement des mots Contournement des maux Desmotscratie des parlementeurs Qui parlent et m'enterrent Palabreurs, palabrant pas à l'abri À l'abri des malappris Palabres n'est pas bon.

At the start there were Some highs some lows Some great debate At the peak flow It was a good debut Some lease some goals Some lovemaking sounds A lot of debris Some shards some arms Tremendous harm Some aaahs!!! Some ooohs!!! Facing pain's agony The diversion of words Suffering's contortions Wordocracy of parliamentarians Who speak and bury me Palaverers, palavering not in a refuge hidden from the misunderstood palaver isn't good.

Copyright © Sunjata, from Sabir: Slam poésie, La Roque-d'Anthéron, France: Vents d'ailleurs, 2014, 2015. Translation copyright © John Keene, 2015.