Featured White Papers
- PCI DSS therapy for the smaller retailer (McAfee)
- Oct. 14th: Simplified IT with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) (ZDNet)
- The rise of Web commuting (Citrix Online)
Content provided in partnership with
When the Tom-Tom Beats …/Quand Bat le tam-tam …
African American Review, Fall, 2007 by Jacques Roumain
When the Tom-Tom Beats...
Your heart trembles in the shadows, like a face
reflected in troubled water
The old mirage rises from the pit of the night
You sense the sweet sorcery of the past:
A river carries you far away from the banks,
Carries you toward the ancestral landscape.
Listen to those voices singing the sadness of love
And in the mountain, hear that tom-tom
panting like the breast of a young black girl
Your soul is this image in the whispering water where
your fathers bent their dark faces
Its hidden movements blend you with the waves
And the white that made you a mulatto is this bit
of foam cast up, like spit, upon the shore.
Quand Bat le tam-tam...
Ton coeur tremble dans l'ombre, comme
le reflet d'un visage dans l'onde trouble.
L'ancien mirage se leve aux creux de la nuit.
Tu connais le doux sortilege du souvenir:
Un fleuve t'emporte loin des berges,
T'emporte vers l'ancestral paysage.
Entends-tu ces voix: elles chantent l'amoureuse douleur
Et dans le morne, ecoute ce tam-tam haleter telle
la gorge d'une noire jeune fille.
Ton ame, c'est le reflet dans l'eau mumurante
ou tes peres ont penches [sic] leurs obscurs visages
Ses secrets mouvements te melent a la vague
Et le blanc qui te fit mulatre, c'est ce peu d'ecume
rejete, comme un crachat, sur le rivage.
Roumain, Jacques, "Quand Bat le tam-tam" and "Guinee," Haiti Journal (4 July 1931; 30 Dec. 1931). Translation: "When the Tom-Tom Beats" and "Guinea," The Poetry of the Negro 364-66.
COPYRIGHT 2007 African American Review
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
Find Research Guides for:
Find Featured Titles for: Reference
- Academe
- African American Review
- African Arts
- African Studies Review
- Afro-Americans in New York Life and History
- Alabama Heritage
- Alabama Review
- American Mathematical Monthly, The
- Anglican Theological Review
- Annals of Dyslexia
- Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ)
- Auk, The
- Australian Journal of Anthropology, The
- Christian Century
- Natural History
Most Popular Articles in Reference
- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
- What factors attract foreign direct investment?
- Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...
- How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques
- More »