Les arbres musiciens; roman.
Title
Les arbres musiciens; roman.
Subject
Deforestation -- Haiti
Haiti -- Religion
Catholic Church -- Haiti
Vodou
Haiti
Haiti -- Religion
Catholic Church -- Haiti
Vodou
Haiti
Description
“Vodou … The Soul of the People,” an excerpt from Jacques Stéphen Alexis’ “The Musician Trees”
Callaloo: Vol. 27, No. 3, Summer 2004
Published by the Johns Hopkins University Press
English translation by Carrol F. Coates
… The night was marked by an exceptional aura—a night that was coal black, sidereal, looming, and sprinkled with stars. Caressing the earth soothingly and without the slightest sound, the nocturnal breeze was almost ethereal. Framing the entrance to the Nan-Remanbrans sanctuary, the bare, swelling boles of two flamboyants formed enormous, athletically muscled thighs. The powerful branches inter-twined like pairs of human limbs with massive biceps, knotted knees, twisted calves, herculean bulges-trees that were virtually human, monstrous titans brandishing thirty arms and twenty legs. A crowd of horses and mules snorted along the fences as other animals kept arriving over the creviced roads. The papalwa, priests young and old, kept crowding in with an aura of mystery enveloping their heads.
A great white towel, sparkling immaculately, was displayed in the very middle of the gate. Dressed in a white robe with a blue sash tied around her waist, the “Empress “was welcoming those arriving. This was Madame Ange Desameaux herself, the buxom wife of the tax collector, an ounsi, a servant of Manbo-Nanan, the spirit of wisdom and of azure, the mother of all the Grenadier spirits. Standing in the dust with bare feet, she was silently welcoming them with a double handshake and leading them across the courtyard to the sanctuary. Ayizan-the wife of Atibon Legba and the spirit of sweet water, markets, gateways, and highways, the chief goddess of the orthodox Arada Olympus-was lighting a fire in the great hearth a few steps from the temple. Close by Bwadòm, Dada, his aging wife, was taking care of other business. Their granddaughter Harmonise was blowing on the fire beneath a great humming cauldron of boiling water for coffee. Standing with her black face over the flames, glowing sparks were burning her tender, resplendent face: there were ruddy spots around her delicate, sharp little nose, her swelling cheeks were golden, a blue luminosity shone beneath her almond-shaped eyes, and streams of light played over her bare, skinny little arm, wrapped around Dada’s leg …
— Pages 621–628
Callaloo: Vol. 27, No. 3, Summer 2004
Published by the Johns Hopkins University Press
English translation by Carrol F. Coates
… The night was marked by an exceptional aura—a night that was coal black, sidereal, looming, and sprinkled with stars. Caressing the earth soothingly and without the slightest sound, the nocturnal breeze was almost ethereal. Framing the entrance to the Nan-Remanbrans sanctuary, the bare, swelling boles of two flamboyants formed enormous, athletically muscled thighs. The powerful branches inter-twined like pairs of human limbs with massive biceps, knotted knees, twisted calves, herculean bulges-trees that were virtually human, monstrous titans brandishing thirty arms and twenty legs. A crowd of horses and mules snorted along the fences as other animals kept arriving over the creviced roads. The papalwa, priests young and old, kept crowding in with an aura of mystery enveloping their heads.
A great white towel, sparkling immaculately, was displayed in the very middle of the gate. Dressed in a white robe with a blue sash tied around her waist, the “Empress “was welcoming those arriving. This was Madame Ange Desameaux herself, the buxom wife of the tax collector, an ounsi, a servant of Manbo-Nanan, the spirit of wisdom and of azure, the mother of all the Grenadier spirits. Standing in the dust with bare feet, she was silently welcoming them with a double handshake and leading them across the courtyard to the sanctuary. Ayizan-the wife of Atibon Legba and the spirit of sweet water, markets, gateways, and highways, the chief goddess of the orthodox Arada Olympus-was lighting a fire in the great hearth a few steps from the temple. Close by Bwadòm, Dada, his aging wife, was taking care of other business. Their granddaughter Harmonise was blowing on the fire beneath a great humming cauldron of boiling water for coffee. Standing with her black face over the flames, glowing sparks were burning her tender, resplendent face: there were ruddy spots around her delicate, sharp little nose, her swelling cheeks were golden, a blue luminosity shone beneath her almond-shaped eyes, and streams of light played over her bare, skinny little arm, wrapped around Dada’s leg …
— Pages 621–628
Creator
Alexis, Jacques Stéphen, 1922-1961.
Publisher
Gallimard, Paris
Date
1957
Format
392 pages 21 cm
Language
French
Type
Fiction
Caribbeana
Caribbeana
Identifier
LC : a 58001805
ISBN : 2070200930
ISBN : 2070200930
Is Referenced By
DEPESTRE, R. (1957). Les Arbres musiciens [Review of Les Arbres musiciens]. Présence Africaine, 16, 188–189. Présence Africaine Editions.
Files
Citation
Alexis, Jacques Stéphen, 1922-1961. , “Les arbres musiciens; roman.,” UM Libraries Digital Exhibits, accessed September 27, 2024, https://scholar.library.miami.edu/digital/items/show/1862.