Black Orpheus Sartre

The Massachusetts Review, Inc.
Black Orpheus
Author(s): Jean-Paul Sartre and John MacCombie
Source: The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Autumn, 1964 - Winter, 1965), pp. 13-52
Published by: The Massachusetts Review, Inc.
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Sartre
Jean-Paul
Black Orpheus
the
gag that was keeping
these black
were
That
what
for?
When
you hoping
they would
shut,
you think that when
they raised them
sing your praises? Did
in the eyes of these
read adoration
selves up again, you would
to the very
to bend down
had forced
heads
that our fathers
men
at
are
Here
black
us, and I
standing,
looking
ground?
shock
of
feel the
me?will
being seen. For
hope that you?like
you
removed
mouths
three
of
thousand
seeing
the white
years,
without
being
seen;
man
has
he was
the privilege
enjoyed
a
look?the
only
light
from his eyes drew each thing out of the shadow of its birth;
of his skin was
the whiteness
white
man?white
because
another
look, condensed
light. The
was
white
like daylight,
he
man,
up the creation like
white like truth, white like virtue?lighted

a torch
and unveiled
are
black men
the secret white
essence
of beings. Today,
our
at
and
us,
gaze comes back to
looking
torches
in
their
black
turn,
eyes;
light up the world
our
no
more
are
than Chinese lanterns
and
white heads
swinging
to
with
in the wind. A black poet?unconcerned
us?whispers
these
our own
the woman
he loves:
Naked
woman,
"Orph?e
Noir"
African andWest
de
la nouvelle
key document
able in English
black
woman
color
which
in your
Dressed
appeared
is life
as
originally
..
the
to
preface
an
et malgache
de langue
n?gre
fran?ais,
fo?sie
of "N?gritude,"
of the concept
in the history
to come
in a difficult
only
by and out-of-print
It appears
here
in
Africaine
(Paris,
1951).
of M.
in a translation
the permission
Sartre,
its first American

by
John
of
anthology
Indian poets, edited by Leopold S?dar-Senghor

Paris,
it has
issue
(Anthologie
A
1948).
avail
been
of Presence
publication
MacCombie.
with
13
The Massachusetts
Naked
dark
woman,
Review
woman,
Firm fleshed ripe fruit, somber ecstasies of black wine.

seems to us to be a strange
that
livid varnish
and our whiteness
our
worn
at
out
skin
from
the
tights,
keeps
breathing?white
find real human flesh
elbows and knees, under which we would
the color of black wine
if we could remove
them. We
think we
are
to the world?suns
of
essential
no
more
than its fauna,
tides; we are
These
These
moons
even
of
its
beasts:
from the city
gentlemen
proper
its harvests,
beasts. Not
gentlemen
Who
Who
no longer know how to dance in the evening by moonlight

no longer know how to walk on the flesh of their feet
Who
no
to
how
know
longer
tell
tales
the
by
fireside
. . .
with divine
feel
right, we were already
Formerly
Europeans
or Soviet
to crumble under American
ing our dignity
beginning
was already
no more
acci
than a geographical
looks; Europe
were
shoves
We
into
the
Atlantic.
that
Asia
the
dent,
peninsula
in the
at least to find a bit of our greatness
reflected
hoping
no
more
are
But
Africans.
there
the
domesticated
of
eyes
and free looks that judge our
domesticated
eyes: there are wild
world.
Here
is a black man
wandering:
to the end of
Here
Here
the
eternity
with
cops
is another
one
Alas!
Alas!
fingers
and
of
their
boulevards
endless
. . .
to his brothers:
shouting
Spidery Europe
its
phalanxes
of
ismoving
ships
its
. . .
is:
the
cunning
silence
of Europe's
night.
. .
14
Black Orpheus
inwhich
. . . there
is nothing
that
time
does
not
dishonor.
writes:
negro
At
we
times,
will
haunt
and
its endless
Europe
. . .
or like malaises
and
Montparnasse
Paris,
like memories
torments,
in our own eyes. She is no more

a white mist
at the bottom
of sunlit
seems
France
and suddenly
a malaise,
than a memory,
exotic
to live in; she has drifted

unfit
towards
souls, a back-country
near
the
Kamchatka:
she
essential
is
anchored
the North,
thing
islands"
is the sun, the sun of the tropics and the sea "lousy with
and the lilies of Iarive and the vol
and the roses of Imangue
?anos of Martinique.
Being
[l'Etre]
is black, Being
ismade of
our
to justify
accidental
and far away, we have
fire,
our
our
our
and
undercooked
mores,
technics,
verdigris
paleness
are eaten away to the bones by these quiet and
We
vegetation.
looks:
corrosive
we
are
to the white world

horribly weary of its immense effort
Listen
its rebel
articulations
crackling
under
hard
stars,
its steel-blue stiffnesses piercing mystical flesh

listen to its exhibitionist victories trumpeting its defeats
listen to itswretched
staggering with grandiose alibis
Have
pity
on
our
na?ve
omniscient
conquerors.
our victories?their
bellies
are, finished;
sticking
to
their guts, our secret defeat.
If we want
up in the air?show
no
can
we
crack open this finitude which
us,
imprisons
longer
of our race, of our color, of our technics:
rely on the privileges
we will not be able to become
a part of the totality
from which
those black eyes exile us, unless we tear off our white
in
tights
There
we
to be men.
to try simply
not intended
shame us however,
these poems
they were
to: they were not written
not
for us; and they will
shame any
or their accomplices
this book,
for these
colonists
who
open
order
If
15
The Massachusetts
are reading
shoul
letters over someone's
are address
for them. These
black men
is
to black men
about black men;
their poetry
nor imprecatory:
an
to
conscious
it is
awakening
think
latter will
they
not meant
letters
der,
Review
ing themselves
neither
satiric
ness. "So," you will
it interest us, if it
say, "in what way does
cannot enter into it." I should
like to
We
is only a document?
of jet ; I should
show inwhat way we can gain access to this world
seems
racial at first?is
like to show that this poetry?which
a hymn
I am
In a word,
for everyone.
by everyone
actually
black
to them
like to explain
a
is
it
through
why
necessarily
in
his
the
that
black
man,
condition,
present
experience
conscious
of himself;
first become
and,
inversely,
why
in the French
is, in our time, the only
language
poetry
great
revolutionary
and
talking now to white men,
know:
what
black men
already
poetic
must
I should
poetry.
*
is not
It
uses
by accident
to speak
language
that
just
poetic
the white
rarely
proletariat
its anger or its
its suffering,
about
pride in itself; neither do I think that workers are less gifted

than
our bourgeois
when
all meaning
class than
sons:
one
in another.
"talent"?that
claims
Nor
that
efficacious
it is more
is it hard work
grace?loses
in one
widespread
that takes away their
even harder
and yet
to drudge
song:
must
that
It
therefore
be recognized
of slave hymns.
that keep the
circumstances
of the class struggle
it is the present
capacity
we know
worker
nics,
for
slaves
from
himself
expressing
to be a technician
he wants
used
by tech
Oppressed
poetically.
that technics
because he knows
will be the instrument of his liberation; he knows that it is only

that
and scientific know-how
economic
by gaining
professional,
to control
He
business management.
he will
be able someday
now has a
of what
poets have
knowledge
practical
profound
more
he has gained
it is a knowledge
but
called Nature,
isMatter
for
his eyes: Nature
on
his
with
that he works
inert adversity
crafty,
same
no
the
has
At
the
Matter
song.
present
time,
phase
tools;
through
him?that
his hands
than
through
16
Black Orpheus
of his
struggle
requires
calculation,
precise
of him
continual,
action:
politi
of
organization
forecasting,
discipline,
to dream,
at this point, would
the masses;
be to betray. Ra
themes
of his daily
great
tionalism, materialism,
positivism?the
for the spontaneous
creation of poetic
battle?are
least propitious
cal
The
last of these myths?the
myths.
the circumstances
under
withdrawn
positive
famous
"Upheaval"?has
one must
struggle:
take up the matter
that is most urgent,
gain this and that posi
on
this
raise
decide
that
strike or on some
tion,
salary,
sympathy
war
in
the
alone matters.
Indo-China:
protest
against
efficiency
of
the
a doubt,
the oppressed
class must
first find itself.
is the exact opposite
of a sub
however,
self-discovery,
it is a question
of oneself:
of recog
rather,
jective examination
situation
of
and
action?the
the
objective
by
nizing?in
can
which
be
the
of
determined
circumstances
by
proletariat,
or of redistribution
an
of property.
Unified
op
by
production
And,
This
without
on each and every one, and reduced

is exerted
pression which
are hardly
to a common
workers
the
with
acquainted
struggle,
inner contradictions
that fecundate
the work
of art and that are
to the praxis. As far as they are concerned,
to know
harmful
is to situate
themselves
themselves
within
the
context
of
the
it requires
them to determine
them;
their exact position
in their class and their function
in the
use
is
from
The
free
the
very
Party.
they
language
slight
of the screws, the constant
frivolous
the
loosening
impropriety,
create
which
the poetic Word.
of transmissions
In their
game
great
both
forces
business,
language
that
surround
technical
and as for the
terms;
they use well-defined
of revolutionary
has
shown
Parain
that it is
parties,
it is used to transmit
informa
orders, watch-words,
pragmatic:
if it loses its exactness,
the Party
falls
tion;
more
more
to eliminate
tends
and
rigorously
must
this
po
The
some way
remain
subjective.
a poetry
that is sociological
and yet
as it is
that is just as subjective
finds its source in subjectivity,
on
or
that is based
uncertain
sociological,
ambiguous
language
as exalting
and that is nevertheless
and as generally
understood
as the most
or as the phrase "Workers
of
precise watch-words
etry,
however,
has
proletariat
not
in
of
apart. All
the subject;
found
17
The Massachusetts
all
countries,
that
unite"
one
reads
Review
on doors
in Soviet
Russia.
has
of
the poetry
the future revolution
remained
of well-intentioned
who
found
young
bourgeois
their inspiration
in their personal
contradictions,
psychological
in the dichotomy
their ideal and their class, in the un
between
this,
Lacking
in the hands
of the old bourgeois

certainty
language.
is a victim
Like
the white worker,
the negro
structure
situation
reveals
of our society. This
of the capitalist
his close
to him
certain classes
ties?quite
apart from the color of his skin?with
are
of Europeans
it
incites him to
like
who,
him,
oppressed;
a
in
which
skin
will
society
imagine
pigmentation
privilege-less
a
even
mere
be considered
fluke. But
itself
though
oppression
a mere
the circumstances
under which
it
fluke,
to
the
and
conditions:
vary according
history
geographic
man
is a victim
of it because he is a black man
and insofar
a
or
a
And
is
native
since he
African.
colonized
deported
race
the
of
his
of it, he
within
and
because
confines
pressed
be
may
first
of all become
who
have
of his
conscious
race. He
must
the centuries
tried
exists
black
as he
is op
must
those
oblige
to reduce him
throughout
vainly
status of a beast,
to recognize
this
that he is a man. On
no
or
no
means
there is
of trickery,
of evasion,
point,
"crossing
a Jew?a
line" that he can consider:
white man
among white
a man
can declare
men?can
himself
that he is a Jew,
deny
to the
nor can
cannot deny
that he is negro,
among men. The
negro
he
he claim that he is part of some abstract colorless
humanity:
the wall
of authen
is black. Thus
he has his back up against
he
insulted
and
been
enslaved,
ticity: having
picks up
formerly
a stone, he
was
at
thrown
him
like
which
the word
"nigger"
a black man,
erect and proudly
draws himself
himself
proclaims
come
men.
eventu
to
The unity which will
face with white
face
in the same strug
all oppressed
together
ally, bringing
peoples
I
in
must
the
what
shall call the mo
colonies
be
by
preceded
gle,
or negativity:
racism is the only
ment of separation
this anti-racist
road
could
that will
lead
it be otherwise?
proletariat?involved
and organized
united
to the
of racial differences.
abolition
count on a distant
Can black men
in
its
on their
own
own
How
white
they
struggles?before
soil? And
furthermore,
are
isn't
18
Black Orpheus
some
there
realize
the
for
a thorough
work
of analysis
that
the
interests
of
underlie
to
in order
the
obvious
identity
The white worker
somewhat
benefits
conditions?
in spite of himself:
of
low as his standard
colonization,
be even lower if there were no coloniza
may be, it would
difference
from
need
of
living
tion. In any case, he is less cynically
or Saint-Louis.
laborer
in Dakar
The
exploited
technical
than
the day
and
equipment
of the European
industrialization
countries make
it possible
for
measures
to be immediately
of socialization
there;
applicable
or the Congo,
seems more
but as seen from S?n?gal
socialism
than anything
else like a beautiful
dream:
before black peasants
can discover
answer
to their pres
is the necessary
that socialism
ent
local
claims,
jointly;
But
therefore,
this new
Marxism
tries
worker,
unearned
class
must
learn
they must
think
they
to
formulate
of themselves
these
claims
as black men.
is different
from
that which
self-discovery
to awaken
in the white worker.
In the European
is based on the nature
consciousness
of profit and
on the present
conditions
of the
increment,
for work;
instruments
in brief,
it is based on
tive characteristics
of the position
of the proletariat.
scorn that white
men
the selfish
for black
display
that has no equivalent
in the attitude
of the bourgeois
of
the
the working
recesses
aimed at the deepest
class?is
a
more
black men must
exact
it
with
view
oppose
ownership
the objec
But
since
men?and
towards
of the heart,
of black sub
race consciousness
is based first of all
jectivity;
consequently
on the black
term
the
is often used
in
soul, or, rather,?since
a
this anthology?on
common
to the thoughts
certain quality
and conduct
of negroes which
is called N?gritude
[sic]. There
are
two
to
about
racial
either
ways
go
only
concepts:
forming
one causes certain subjective
to become
characteristics
objective,
or else one tries to interiorize
manners
revealed
of
objectively
means
thus the black man who asserts his n?gritude
conduct;
by
a revolutionary
movement
himself
in
immediately
places
to meditate,
the position
of having
to
either because
he wishes
in himself
certain objectively
established
traits of the
recognize
or because
African
he hopes
to discover
the Es
civilizations,
sence of blackness
in the well
re
of his heart. Thus
subjectivity
of
19
The Massachusetts
Review
of the self with

the relation
the self; the source of all
from
the
the
which
worker
had to disen
very poetry
poetry,
man
to
asks his colored
who
black
brothers
The
gage himself.
to try to present
to them an ex
is going
"find
themselves"
appears:
emplary image of their N?gritude

to grasp
soul
wants
it. He
look into his own
and will
to be both
a beacon
a mirror;
and
the first revolutionary will be the harbinger of the black soul,

the herald?half
prophet and half follower?who will tear
Blackness out of himself in order to offer it to the world; in
brief,
more,
be a poet in the literal sense of "vates."

in common
has nothing
with
poetry
he will
black
effusions: it is functional, it answers a need which

terms.
precise
Leaf
an
through
of
anthology
Further
heartfelt
is defined in
contemporary
white poetry: you will find a hundred different subjects, de

the mood
of the poet, depending
and interests
upon
pending
the
his
I am
his
In
which
and
country.
upon
anthology
position
to you here,
there is only one subject
that all the
introducing
more
or
to
to
less
Haiti
From
treat,
poets attempt
successfully.
a
reveal
is
soul.
there
idea:
the
Black
black
po
Cayenne,
single
it announces
etry is evangelic,
discovered.
good
news:
Blackness
to fish for
this n?gritude,
which
they wish
not
the soul's
under
does
fall
abyssal depths,
The
herald
in the soul, nothing
is gratuitous.
However,
has
gone
law which
those
cept
through
blackness
meditative
he
white
schools,
the oppressed
has stolen
himself
through
forbids
had
having
has passed
state. But
some
contact
from
at
re
in their
gaze all by itself:

of the black soul
a brazen
in accordance
with
ex
arms
man
to possess
any
from
with
the
white
of
the
the
has been
immediacy
same time,
In choosing
he
it is
oppressor;
that his
culture
existence
has more
to
or
the
less
to see what
he is, he
his n?gritude.
on
no longer
And
himself.
he
co-incides
with
split,
from himself
exiled
it is because he was already
the other hand,
to reveal himself.
He
therefore
this need
that he discovered
ceased
to live
has become
begins by exile. It is a double exile: the exile of his body offers

a magnificent image of the exile of his heart; he is in Europe
most
of the time,
in the cold,
in the middle
of gray
crowds;
20
he
Black Orpheus
dreams
he
of Haiti.
of Port-au-Prince,
in exile;
already
was
out of Africa
the
had
them. And
and dispersed
those
But
slavers
were
in Port-au-Prince,
torn his
fathers
all of the poems
in Africa
this book?except
us
A hemisphere:
in the
show
the same mystical
geography.
concentric
three
the
first
of
circles?ex
foreground?forming
then comes the daz
tends the land of exile, colorless Europe;
in
zling
of
circle
the
which
dance
the
of childhoood,
is
the
the last circle
world's
Africa,
around Africa;
of all black
navel,
pole
like a snake's
skin, Africa
more
black
but
like
the "eternal
rays;
with
boulevards
attainment,
beyond
invisible
burnt,
oily
and tufted;
and
being
Africa,
rain, torrid
a flame,
between
poetry?dazzling
of fire and
flickering
real than
Africa?phantom
written
and
Islands
Roundelay
nothingness,
but absent,
which
disintegrating
an imaginary
Africa,
cops"
with
its
Europe
The
continent.
extraordinary good luck of black poetry lies in the fact that the
anxieties
of the colonized
native
have
own
their
and
grandiose
into deeply
obvious
need only to be gone
and to
symbols which
be meditated
the
upon:
exile,
slavery,
couple
Africa-Europe
and the great Manichaeistic
division
of the world
into black and
white.
This
black
soul
ancestral
is an Africa
the
cold buildings
but
ever-present
the other exile:

exile represents
bodily
the negro,
from which
in the midst
of white
culture
concealed
n?gritude
and
technics,
haunts
him,
him; he himself rubs up against its silky wing;

is spread
throughout
him
like
his
searching
is exiled.
rubs
the
of
An
against
it palpitates and
and
memory
his
loftiest demands, like his shrouded, betrayed childhood, and

like the childhood of his race and the call of the earth, like
the swarming
of insects and
the pure legacy
of his
to
his
truncated
ought
unify
like
at his
squarely
white
culture?its
n?gritude,
silence,
the indivisible
ancestors,
life. But
it vanishes
its words,
and
if he
of Nature,
simplicity
that
like the Ethics
turns around
in smoke;
its mores?rise
to look
the walls
of
up between
it and him:
Give me back my black dolls, so that I may play with
My instinct's simple games
them
21
The Massachusetts
that I may
cover
remain
up my
Review
in the shadow of its laws
courage
my audacity
feel me
as me
me renewed
I was yesterday
through what
yesterday
without
complexity
yesterday
when
the
have
they
However,
it will
down;
themes
the
uprooting
hour
ransacked
the
. . .
came
that was
space
mine
be broken
prison must
some day:
to Africa
to return
be necessary
thus
to the native
and
of return
of
re-descent
country
the walls
of
this
culture
into the glaring hell of the black soul are indissolubly mixed
A quest
is involved
up in the vates of n?gritude.
here, a sys
an
and
tematic
"asc?se"1
by a continual
accompanied
stripping
I shall call this poetry
And
effort of investigation.
"Orphic"
into himself makes me think
the negro's
tireless descent
because
to claim Eurydice
of Orpheus
from Pluto. Thus,
through
going
an exceptional
stroke of poetic good
luck, it is by letting himself
on the ground
man
like a possessed
fall into trances, by rolling
or
his regrets
of his angers,
tormented
by singing
by himself,
"civili
his wounds,
his life torn between
his hates, by exhibiting
zation"
and
his
in short,
substratum;
most
is
certain
the black poet
old
most
black
that
lyrical,
poetry:
great collective
by speaking
he seems
it is when
for all negroes;
of our culture
and
acquired,
ture taking-up
In
is the most
by the serpents
for he then un
revolutionary,
he has
the European
knowledge
systematically
the great fu
this spiritual destruction
symbolizes
their
black men will
of arms by which
destroy
this
suffice to clarify
will
single example
most
ethnic
minorities
the twentieth
century,
A
sionately
1
only
smothered
to ruin
dertakes
chains.
that he
by becoming
a
of creating
of himself,
he speaks
asc?se:
endeavored
the
ascetic's
to
movement
resuscitate
of
their
int?riorisation,
national
(translator's
last remark.
have
pas
languages
note)
22
Black Orpheus
for their
while
struggling
one is Irish or Hungarian,
of
has the benefit
which
be able to say that

to a collectivity
belong
au
economic
and political
independence.
one must
a broad
one must
Irish,
think in Irish. The
to be
To
Irish, which
of a Society
specific
to the untranslatable
locutions
of its lan
correspond
exactly
are forced
to
The
of n?gritude
fact that the prophets
guage.
means
that there is a certain risk
their gospel
in French
write
to reject
of dangerously
the efforts of black men
down
slowing
but
tonomy;
means
above
all:
also
think
traits
to the four corners of the

been dispersed
tutelege. Having
earth by the slave trade, black men have no common
language;
to unite,
in order to incite the oppressed
they must
necessarily
of the oppressor's
And French
is
rely on the words
language.
our
the language that will
furnish the black poet with
at least within
audience,
in this goose-pimply
and which Mallarm?
language?pale
said was "the
all
and
neutral
an attenuation
spirit demands
this
brilliant
color"?in
excessively
colonization.
like our
It is
cold
skies,
par excel
language
of variegation
and
which
is
language
are
Rab?arivell
Laleau,
Diop,
skies and of their hearts:
it is
that they can communicate;
like
dead
half
of French
since our
lence
of
the limits
the largest
for them, that Damas,

to pour the fire of their
going
this language
alone
through
the sixteenth-century
scholars who
can meet
in Latin,
black men
only
man
that the white
has prepared
to be the eternal
arranged
is there?always
there?even
each other only

understood
on that trap-covered
ground
the colonist
for them:
has
mediator
the colonized;
he
is absent, even in the most
secret meetings.
are ideas, when
And
since words
the negro de
French
he
in
that
French
clares
rejects
culture, he accepts with
one hand what he rejects with
the other; he sets up the enemy's
when
between
he
in himself,
not
like a crusher. This would
thinking-apparatus
matter:
this
that
and
thou
except
syntax
vocabulary?forged
sands of miles
away in another
epoch to answer other needs and
to designate
to furnish
other objects?are
unsuitable
him with
the means
of speaking
about himself,
his own anxieties,
his own
hopes.
The
French
language
and French
thought
are analytical.
What would happen if the black spirit were above all syntheti
23
The Massachusetts
cal? The
Review
term "n?gritude"
is one of the few black
ugly
to our dictionary.
But after all, if this "n?gritude"
or at least a describable
it must
subsume
concept,
rather
contributions
is a definable
other more
to the imme
concepts which
elementary
correspond
ideas directly
con
fundamental
involved
with
negro
are the words
sciousness:
but where
to describe
them? How
one understands
well
the Haitian
poet's
complaint:
diate
does not correspond
obsessing heart which
This
To
my
nor
language,
to my
customs,
And on which encroach, like a clinging-root,

Borrowed feelings and the customs
Of Europe, feel this suffering
And
this despair?equal
to no
other?
Of ever taming with words from France

This heart which came to me from S?n?gal.
It is not true, however,
that the black man expresses
himself
in a "foreign"
since
he
is
French
from
child
language,
taught
at ease when he thinks in the terms
hood and since he is perfectly
of a technician,
one must
of a scholar or of a politician.
Rather,
the
about
but
that
difference
speak
patent
separates what
slight
he says from what
he would
like to say, whenever
he speaks
about himself.
It seems to him that a Northern
Spirit steals his
or less what
ideas from him, bends them slightly
to mean more
he wanted;
that
white
drink
words
his
thoughts
drinks blood. If he suddenly gorges himself,

self
together
and
takes
a step
backward,
there
like
sand
if he pulls him
are
the
sounds
lying prostrate in front of him?strange: half signs and half

things. He will not speak his n?gritude with precise, efficacious
words which hit the target every time. He will not speak his
in prose. As everyone
every poetic experience
knows,
n?gritude
has its origin
in this feeling
of frustration
that one has when
a
to be a means
with
that is supposed
confronted
of
language
direct
The
what
communication.
reaction
Bataille
believe
of
calls
the
is in effect
frustrated
speaker
by prose
the holocaust
of words.
As long as we can
that a pre-established
harmony
governs
the relationship
24
Black Orpheus
and Being, we use words without
seeing them,
with blind trust;
they are sensory organs, mouths,
hands, win
a first frus
dows open on the world. As soon as we experience
we
see
the
falls
whole
this
system,
beyond us;
tration,
chattering
out-of-order
mechanism
than an upset,
whose
it is no more
existence
arms are still flailing
to indicate
in emptiness;
in
on the foolish
one fell swoop we pass judgment
of
business
a word
between
is in essence prose,
that language
things; we understand
naming
erect in front
and that prose
stands
is in essence
failure;
Being
to catch it, we
of us like a tower of silence, and if we still want
can do so only
in an intentional
silence:
"evoke,
through
never direct,
tu" by allusive words,
the object
reduc
shadow,
one has better
to the same silence."2 No
stated
ing themselves
to
is an incantatory
in
that poetry
and
suggest
attempt
Being
on
the
of
the
word:
his
by
vibratory
by insisting
disappearance
us
words mad,
verbal
the poet makes
by making
impotence,
this chaos which
cancels itself out, there are
suspect that beyond
silent densities;
since we cannot keep quiet, we must make
silence
with
From
language.
of French
to
Mallarm?
goal
poetry
destruction
of language.
are
themselves
knocking
seems
A
poem
about,
the
the final
Surrealists,
to have
this auto
been
is a dark room where words
to me
quite mad.
Collisions
in the air:
they ignite each other with their fire and fall down in flames.
that we must
situate the efforts of the
It is in this perspective
answer
a
ruse with
the colonist's
"black
They
evangelists."
ruse: since the oppressor
is present
similar but inverse
in the
very language that they speak, they will speak this language in
order
to destroy
it. The
contemporary
European
to give
in order
them back
words
dehumanize
black herald
them,
them
break
is going
their
with
with
with
2
Mallarm?, Magie
usual
to de-Frenchifize
associations,
poet tries to
to nature;
the
them; he will
he will
violently
crush
couple
little steps of caterpillar rain

little steps like mouthfuls of milk
little steps like ball-bearings
(Edition de la Pl?iade, p. 400).
25
Review
The Massachusetts
with little steps like seismic shocks

in the soil stride like gaps of stars8
Yams
their whiteness
does he
regurgitated
a solemn,
sacred
of this ruined
them, making
language
adopt
can
the
black
Poetry
through
Poetry.
Only
superlanguage,
men of Tananarive
the black men
of Port-au
and of Cayenne,
each other
in
communicate
with
and of Saint-Louis,
Prince
Only
when
private.
And
n?gritude,
sive words,
they
have
since French
lacks
terms
is silence,
since n?gritude
never
direct,
to define
concepts
poets will use "allu
and
these
to the same si
reducing
Short-circuits
of
behind
it.
lence"
language:
mute
we
a
idol.
fall of words,
the flaming
great black
glimpse
seems
that
It is not only the black man's
poetic
self-portrayal
of ex
the means
to me;
it is also his personal
way of utilizing
even
to
do
it:
him
incites
at
His
his
position
disposal.
pression
in order
themselves
to evoke
before he thinks of writing poetry, in him, the light of white
is nowhere more
and altered. This
is refracted,
polarized
terms?"white-black"
than in his use of two connected
manifest
and night"?
cover both the great cosmic division?"day
?that
words
human
the native
between
on
a
hierarchical
based
and
conflict
and
the
But
it is a connection
the
colonist.
system: by giving
lan
this term, the teacher also gives him a hundred
the negro
over
the
consecrate
man's
the
white
which
habits
rights
guage
to
to
snow"
like
"white
will
learn
black man. The
say
negro
a
a
of
to
the
blackness
of
of
indicate
look,
soul,
innocence,
speak
he accuses himself,
of a deed. As soon as he opens his mouth,
it
if he upsets
the hierarchy.
And
in upsetting
unless he persists
can you imagine
the
he is already
in French}
strange
poetizing:
or
of innocence"
like "the blackness
savor that an expression
savor
the
have
is
for
That
us?
of virtue" would
"the darkness
which
we
we
taste
on every
Your
round,
page
of this book,
for example,
when,
read:
this white
C?saire,
Les
armes
shining,
black
satin
breasts
. . .
smile
miraculeuses:
tam-tam
II.
26
Black Orpheus
of eyes
in the
face's
in me
awaken
deaf
rhythms
which
our
shadow
this
evening
. . .
intoxicate,
there
in Guin?e,
sisters
black and naked

and inspire inme
this evening
black twilights heavy with sensual anxiety
for
the soul of the black country where the ancients
are
sleeping
lives and speaks

this evening
in uneasy
your
Throughout
back
strength,
. . .
along
the
small
of
this poem, black is color; better still, light;
its
our habits;
radiance
dissolves
the black
country
are
a dark hell:
not
a
where
the ancients
is
it
is
land of
sleeping
sun and fire. Then
in
another
the
connection,
again,
superiority
over black does not express
of white
that
only the superiority
claims to have over the native: more profoundly,
the colonist
it
a universal
as our night
of day as well
adoration
expresses
diffuse
soft
In this sense, these black men

also are universal.
terrors, which
are re-establishing
the hierarchy
they have
just upset. They
to be poets
don't want
and de
of nighty poets of vain revolt
the
of dawn;
spair: they give
promise
they greet
the
transparent
dawn
of a new
day.
At last, the black man discovers, through the pen, his baleful
sense
of foreboding:
Nigger
one
of them,
and
then
Deliver
black like misery

cries
another,
me
out:
from my blood's night

27
The Massachusetts
Review
to contain
black
is found
all Evil
the word
and all
covers
an
two
it
almost
tension
unbearable
between
up
Good,
classifications:
solar hierarchy
and racial hierarchy.
contradictory
Thus
an extraordinary
like self-destructive
poetry,
thereby
from
the
hands
of
the
and
there
objects
Duchamp
Surrealists;
a secret whiteness
in white,
is a secret blackness
in black, a fixed
It gains
flickering of Being and of Non-being

expressed
as in this poem
as well
which is perhaps nowhere
by C?saire:
statue, a stone in its fore

My tall wounded
inattentive
head; my great
day flesh with
pitiless spots, my great night flesh with
spots.
day
The poet will go even further; he writes:

Our
faces like the true operative
beautiful
of negation.
power
this abstract eloquence

Behind
Lautr?amont
is seen
evoking
an extremely
some
to
sense
to
and
subtle
bold
attempt
give
two
to
the poetic
of the
black skin and
realize
faces of
synthesis
night. When
David Diop
he makes
says that the negro
is "black like
of
black
represent
misery,"
deprivation
into this image more
C?saire
and goes
develops
is no longer
is not
it is refusal.
Black
absence,
But
light.
deeply:
color,
night
it is the
destruction of this borrowed clarity which falls from the white

sun. The
destroy
negro
revolutionary
be complete nudity:
others'
Truth.
Black
haunt our days?embody

patiently
gnaws
is negation
because
in order to build his Truth,

faces?these
night memories
the dark work of Negativity
at concepts.
Thus,
by a reversal
recalls that of the humiliated negro?insulted

when
he asserts
nigger"
that establishes
darkness
he wishes
to
he must first
which
which
which
curiously
and called "dirty
is the privative
aspect of
rights?it
is the color of night.
its value. Liberty
am
of language,
symbolism,
magic
his
Destructions,
autodaf?s
all the negative
of concepts:
bivalence
aspects of modern
poetry
are here. But
of some gratuitous
it is not a matter
game. The
28
Black Orpheus
black man's
his original
position,
the alienation
"rending,"
that
a foreign way of thinking imposes on him, all oblige him to

as a negro,?or,
if you prefer,
his existential
reconquer
unity
a
his
the original
of
"asc?se,"
gradual
purity
plan?through
a point
the language
stage. N?gritude?like
liberty?is
beyond
a matter
it
is
and an ultimate
of departure
of
goal:
making
a matter
to the mediate,
of
pass from the immediate
n?gritude
man
must
The
it.
therefore
find
death
in
black
thematicismg
white
culture
Platonic
in order
to be reborn
whose
a black
death
body
and mystical
dialectical
a method.
But this method
philosopher
in truth. This
reborn
necessarily
implies
as a set of rules to be used
comes
with
embraces
one with
successive
whoever
transformations
in directing
it;
lead
applies
which
soul, like the

in order to be
return
to origins
is not presented
the spirit. Rather,
it be
it is the dialectical
law of
to coincidence
the negro
nor
of his knowing,
from himself,
but rather
a matter
in n?gritude.
It is not
himself
himself
of his ecstatically
away
tearing
and becoming
what he is.
of both discovering
means
are two convergent
of arriving
There
with
mordial
simplicity
The
poets
of existence:
one
is objective,
sometimes
at
this
the other
pri
sub
use one, some

in our anthology
jective.
times the other, and sometimes
both of them together.
In effect,
an objective
is
that
there exists
by the
n?gritude
expressed
the
and
dances
of
chants
African
As a
mores,
arts,
populaces.
spiritual exercise, the poet will prescribe allowing himself to be

fascinated by primitive rhythms, letting his thoughts run in
of the poems
included
poetry. Many
because
from
borrow
the
they
night
a percussive
time tambourine
is some
rhythm which
players,
sometimes
times sharp and regular,
torrential
and bounding.
a
The poetic act, then, is dance of the soul; the poet turns round
forms of black
traditional
are called tams-tams,
here
and round like a dervish until he faints; he has established his

ancestors' time in himself, he feels it flowing with its peculiar
violent pulls; he hopes to "find" himself in this rhythmic
I shall say that he tries to make himself
"possessed"
pulsation;
he hopes
his
that the echoes of his tam
n?gritude;
by
people's
come to awaken
tam will
timeless
instincts sleeping within
him.
29
The Massachusetts
Review
one will get the impres

this collection,
Upon
through
leafing
a genre
sion that the tam-tam
tends to become
of black poetry,
as
or
a
was
our
sonnet
the
the
ode
of
genre
just
poetry. Others,
like Rabemananjara,
will
be inspired
by royal proclamations,
still others will draw from the popular well
of the Hain-tenys.
The
center
calm
this maelstrom
of
is the poetry of Birago Diop,

and
it comes
is at rest because
alone
oral
tradition.
thing contorted,
aim at becoming
ing from it. But
ancestors
where
Almost
taut
of rhythms,
chants,
in all its majestic

directly
the other
all
and
from Griot
about
attempts
them
shouts,
it
simplicity:
narratives
some
have
because
desperate
they
a part of folkloric
rather than emanat
poetry
however
far he may be from "the black country
the
is closer than we to the
black man
sleep,"
as Mallarm?
creates Gods."
great period when,
says, "the word
our
resume
It is practically
to
some close
for
poets
impossible
ness with
ten
traditions:
centuries
of
poetry
popular
scholarly
such
from
folkloric
traditions;
furthermore,
:
at
we
is
the
could only imitate
up
very best,
drying
inspiration
its simplicity
on the
from a distance.
The
black men
of Africa,
are still in the great period of mythical
and
contrary,
fecundity
are
not
as
black
their
poets
French-language
just using
myths
a form of diversion
as we use our
allow
epic poems:4
they
to be spellbound
themselves
by them so that at the end of the
separate
them
incantation,
This
is why
surge forth.
evoked?may
or
of "objective
poetry" magic,
n?gritude?magnificently
I call this method
charm.
on
C?saire,
the
contrary,
chose
to backtrack
into
himself.
Since this Eurydice will disappear in smoke if Black Orpheus

turns around
to look back on her, he will
the royal
descend
road
of his soul with his back turned on the bottom of the grotto ; he
will
descend
you,
daily
4
below
I have
placed
and
activities
Sartre
uses
words
and meanings,?"in
order to think
on
all words
the mountain-of-pity"?below
"chansons"
to
is referring,
of course,
Geste,
(translator's
note)
the
plan
for what
of "repetition,"
we
the Medieval
have
French
translated
epic
even
as
poems,
below
"epic
poems"
the Chansons
of
the
; he
?e
30
Black Orpheus
his back turned and his eyes
of revolt, with
to
touch
with
his feet the black water
of
closed,
finally
in it.5 Desire
and to let himself
drown
and desire
dreams
like a tidal wave;
and dream will
rise up snarling
they will
first
barrier
reefs
in order
like
dance
words
make
flotsam
and
them
throw
pell-mell,
on the shore.
shattered,
and just as the old geography

"Words go beyond themselves;
is done for, the high and the low (words) do not allow diversion
either
towards
operate
on
. . .On
earth.
towards
flexible
strangely
of an organism
Level
and
or
heaven
a
at
range
one
the
contrary,
they
on the
gaseous
level:
both solid and liquid, black and white
day
night."6
the old surrealistic method

writ
(automatic
recognizes
a
an
is
it
method:
like
presupposes
mysticism,
ing,
apprentice
a start along
One must
the way).
dive under
ship, exercises,
crust of reality,
the superficial
of common
sense, of reasoning
One
to
in order
touch
the
bottom
of the soul and
very
of desire:
desire which
makes
of
man a refusal of everything
and a love of everything;
desire,
a call
laws and of the possible,
the radical negation
of natural
to miracles;
its
mad
cosmic
desire which,
energy,
by
plunges
reason,
awaken
man
the
breast of Nature
and, at the same
seething
the
above Nature
affirmation
of his
through
to be unsatisfied.
not
C?saire
is
the
first
Furthermore,
to take this road. Before
L?ro
Etienne
had
founded
him,
back
into
lifts
him
time,
Right
forces
timeless
the
negro
"was
says Senghor,
L?gitime
Defense.
^L?gitime
D?fense,"
a cultural movement
more
than a review.
the
from
Starting
Marxist
of the society of the "Islands,"
it discovered,
analysis
0
seems
Sartre
not
structed
retrieved
6
The
to
Eurydice
French
to hare
look
confused
from
his
he was
while
back
Pluto,
(translator's
was
"automatic
writing"
an
we have
to give
tried
English
simply
care to consult
French
who
the original
c'est
d?fassent,
tent fas
traire,
Niveau
de
un
bien
distraire,
vers
un
c'en
ciel
est
et une
fait
curieusement
?tagement
de Vorganisme
gazeux
solide
aussi
res
since
here,
images
from
ascending
note)
so
de
fir able
et
liquide,
s'of ?re
blanc
its sense.
of
as follows:
in
he
had
For
that
those
(tLes mots
se
le bas ne fermet
. . . Au con
g?ografhie.
au niveau.
r?el mais
Au
le haut
que
la vieille
was
untranslatable
completely
affroximation
it runs
text,
terre
Orpheus
Hades,
after
et
et noir
jour
et nuit."
31
The Massachusetts
in the Antilles,
centuries.
from
of African
descendants
been kept in the dulling

It affirmed
Review
negro
that
surrealism
could
only
and express him in his entireness."
if one compares
L?ro
with C?saire,
his
help but be struck by their dissimilarities,

us to measure
allow
had
deliver
him
radar with
one
which
are
go
student
beyond
one
cannot
and this comparison
a black revolu
was
the pre
as a "miracu
of surrealism
a sort of
for reconnaissance,
the abyss that prevents

white
surrealism.
L?ro
from utilizing
tionary
the exploitation
cursor; he invented
lous weapon"
and an instrument
poems
do not
who
taboos
However,
may
slaves,
condition of the proletarian for three
probes
exercises,
themselves;
the depths
of the abyss. But his
are
mere
imitations:
they
they
in on each
rather,
they close
other:
The
ancient heads of hair

Glue to the branches floors of empty seas
Where
your body is only a memory
Where
Spring trims its nails
Helix of your smile thrown far away
On
the houses
we
will
have
nothing
to do with
. . .
"The
helix
of your
"the
trims
its
smile,"
spring which
in these the preciousness
nails": we recognize
and gratuitous
ness of surrealistic
that consists
the eternal
of
process
imagery,
a
two
or
between
unrelated
sep
throwing
bridge
extremely
arated
terms
and
hoping?without
really
believing?that
uncover
some hidden
the dice" will
aspect of
seem
me
not
to
It
in
does
this
either
poem or in the
that,
Being.
man:
at the
L?ro
the
demands
of
the
liberation
black
others,
a
to
most
he
claim
of
the
liberation
very
lays
categorical
imagi
no combination
in this completely
abstract
of
game,
nation;
even remotely.
evokes Africa
If these poems were
words
taken
this
"throw
of
out of the anthology

I
and the name of their author hidden,
or
at
not
to
white
attribute
them
would
all,
black,
defy anyone
or Le
to La Revolution
to a European
Surr?aliste
contributor
Minotaure.
race and
The
condition,
purpose
beyond
of surrealism
class,
behind
is to rediscover?beyond
the fire of language?
32
Black Orpheus
are no longer opposed
to any
which
silent darknesses
even
to
all
and
and
because
night
day
opposites
day,
thing,
one might
are blended
in them and suppressed;
consequently,
of the sur
and the impersonality
speak of the impassiveness
a
as
and
Parnassian
is
there
realist poem,
impassiveness
just
dazzling
not
impersonality.
on the contrary,
and wheels
bursts
A poem
by C?saire,
suns turning and exploding
into new suns
like a rocket;
around
It is not a ques
come out of it; it is a perpetual
going-beyond.
tion of the poem becoming
part of the calm unity of opposites;
one of the opposites
in the "black-white"
but rather of making
a
to the other. The
in
its
like
opposition
phallus
couple expand
these words
into
thrown
the air
like
stones
from
density
of
volcano,
as being against
is defined
which
is found in n?gritude,
is not all
C?saire
What
and colonization.
destroys
to
he
what
but rather white
culture;
brings
light is not
Europe
culture
the revolutionary
but rather
for everything
aspirations
is
he
in his very depths
touches
what
the oppressed
negro;
a
concrete
of
form
certain
not the spirit but
humanity.
specific,
one can speak here about engaged
and even
With
this in mind,
desire
of
directed
automatic
intervention
translate
the
same
within himself
fixed
writing,
because
but
torrid
not
obsession.
is any meditative
there
because
the words
and
The
images
perpetually
surrealist
finds
white
the trigger; C?saire finds within himself

of demands
and
L?ro's
words
the
are
feeling.
ex
around
themes
vague
through
general
organized
a
are
C?saire's
words
and
of
ties;
relaxing
logical
pansion
his
and
cemented
each
other
furious
by
passion.
pressed
against
the most
the most
and between
Between
comparisons
daring
inflexibility
feebly
terms, runs a secret thread of hate and hope.

widely
separated
thrown
For
"the helix
smile
far
of your
compare
example,
a
is
the product
of
free play of the imagination
away"?which
as well
as an invitation
to revery?with
and the radium mines buried in the abyss of my
will jump by grains
into the feeding-trough
of birds
innocence
33
The Massachusetts
and
the
will
be
gathered
in which
stars'
stere
common
the
Review
name
of fire-wood
from the alluvium
of the singing veins of night
the "disjecta
membra"
of
as to allow
the supposition
ganized
are so or
the vocabulary
a
that there is
black "Art
Po?tique."
Or
read:
Our
Also
beautiful
faces like the true operative power of negation.
read:
Seas lousy with islands cracking in the roses' fingers
and my lightning-struck
flame-thrower
body intact.
Here we find the apotheosis of the fleas of black misery jump

in a stream
of light,
islands
hair,
ing in the water's
cracking
rose
of the celestial
under
delouser:
dawn with
the fingers
colored
the dawn of Greek
and Mediterranean
culture
fingers,
a
?snatched
black
thief
from the sacrosanct Homeric
poems by
?whose
enslaved
princess's
a
Louverture
Toussaint
by
of the black sea;
parasites
is metamorphosed,
which
of white
fingernails
in order
are suddenly
to crack the
controlled
triumphant
rebels and
suddenly
that savage weapon
the weapon
the
of scientists,
the dawn, which

opens fire like
the flame-thrower,
men,
strikes
of executioners,
the tall black Titan

with
its
weapon
to
in
the
and
arises
intact
eternal
order
he
and
white
begin
fire,
on Europe
In C?saire,
the great
surrealist
and heaven.
assault
and is
it takes on its definitive
is realized,
tradition
meaning
movement?is
taken from
surrealism?that
European
destroyed:
man
a
turns
them and
it against
Black
who
the Europeans
by
out else
I have pointed
function.
defined
it a rigorously
gives
shut
itself
of the proletariat
how the whole
where
completely
sur
Reason:
in
of
the destructive
off from
poetry
Europe,
realism
given
and pales, rejected

by
languishes
of their own blood.
it a transfusion
those who
But
could
at the very
have
mo
34
Black Orpheus
ment
it is losing
onto
grafted
when
contact
Antilles,
it develops
lies in his having
originality
as one
a
as
negro,
anxiety
tion;
it is, in the
the Revolution,
Revolu
of the universal
somber
flower.
his powerful,
as a militant
directed
C?saire's
concentrated
individual,
and
destructive,
metaphysical
were
at the moment
and Aragon
when Eluard
failing
verse. And
content
to
their
negritude
finally,
political
this world
into
with
another branch
into an enormous
poetry
to give
of
oppressed,
the most
free
a cry of pain, of love and

the surrealist
of ob
tradition
like
from C?saire
is snatched
object
of hate. Here
again he follows
do not describe
words
they
n?gritude,
poetry. C?saire's
jective
not
like a
do
do not designate
copy it from the outside
it, they
a model:
it under our
they create it; they compose
painter with
can
a
and
be observed
it is
very eyes: henceforth
thing which
learned;
objective
soul from
to
the subjective
we
method
himself
interiorize
N?gritude
night;
which
method
about
he has
earlier:
chosen
he
joins the
the black
ejects
spoke
at the very moment
when
others are
is the same
in both
the final
result
trying
cases.
it;
at
tam-tam
in the streets of Dakar
is the far-away
some
shouts from
Haitian
voo-doo
cellar window,
slid
ing along
the roadway;
level with
the Congolese
mask;
it is
but
also this poem by C?saire, this slobbery, bloody poem full of

a cut-up worm.
This
double
of the
and excretion
beats out the rhythm
spasm of absorption
black heart on every page of this collection.
is this n?gritude,
What
sole anxiety
of these
then, at present,
phlegm,
twisting
in the dust
like
It must
that a
of this book?
first be stated
sole subject
poets,
white man
could hardly
since he has no
speak about it suitably,
lack words
inner experience
of it and since European
languages
to describe
of
pages
But this
cated
that
it. I ought
collection
this
introduction
then
to let the reader
and draw
would
be
his
own
encounter
conclusions
if, after
it in the
about
having
incomplete
the quest for the Black Grail
represented?both
most
and in its methods?the
intention
authentic
original
thesis of revolutionary
show that this complex
it.
indi
in its
syn
I did not
and poetic anxiety,
aspirations
I shall
notion
is essentially
pure Poetry.
35
The Massachusetts
limit myself
of testimonies
therefore
a cluster
themes.
cipal
poem
which
Senghor
its theme
is less
Review
to examining
as
these poems
objectively
out some of their prin
and to pointing
the n?gritude
of a
says: "What makes
than its style,

the emotional
warmth
to
transmutes
the
into the
which
word
words,
gives
Word."
It could not be more
that
is
stated
explicitly
n?gritude
a state nor a definite
or
neither
vices
and
of
virtues
ensemble
of intellectual
and moral
but rather a certain affective
qualities,
life
attitude
the world.
towards
has
psychology
Since
the beginning
scholastic
its great
renounced
of this century,
We
distinctions.
no longer believe that the "facts" of the soul are divided
into
or actions,
or
or
volitions
sentiments
knowledge
perceptions,
We
know
that a feeling
is a definite
blind passiveness.
way of
our
the
world
around
it in
with
that
us,
rapport
establishing
a certain comprehension
of this universe.
It is a tension
volves
of
the
a way of going
and of another,
a
in short,
facts of experience;
plan quite like
act. To use Heidegger's
is
N?gritude
language,
a choice
soul,
the
of oneself
beyond
the voluntary
raw
the Negro's
being-in-the-world.
here is what
Furthermore,
C?saire
tells us about
it:
n?gritude is not a stone with its deafness flung

out against the clamor of the day
on the
My n?gritude is not a dead speck of water
dead eye of the earth
My
my
n?gritude
is neither
tower
nor
cathedral
it plunges into the red flesh of the ground

it plunges into the ardent flesh of the sky
it perforates the opaque pressure of its righteous
N?gritude
patience.
is portrayed in these beautiful lines of verse more
as a frame of mind.
But this act is an inner de
a question
the goods
of this
of taking
a
is
it
and transforming
in one's hands
question
them;
as an act than
termination:
world
it is not
of existing in the middle

universe
nical.
For
the white
of the world. The
relation with
an adaptation.
But this adaptation
to possess
is to transform.
the white man,
uses
he does
instruments
which
worker
remains
is not
the
tech
To
be sure,
not
possess.
36
Black Orpheus
are his own: if it is true that the per
at least his techniques
for
the
inventions
in
of European
major
responsible
comes
at
the
from
the
middle
trades
least
classes,
mainly
dustry
seem to the white workers
of carpenter,
cabinet-maker,
potter,
But
sonnel
to be a true
the fact that the orientation

of
despite
tends to remove
their "joy
in work"
great capitalist
production
to say that the black worker
from them. But
it is not enough
uses instruments
are lent to him;
are also lent
which
techniques
heritage,
him.
refers
C?saire
Those
who
to his black
have
brothers
invented
neither
as:
nor
powder
compass
those who have never tamed either steam or electricity

those
But
who
not
have
this
haughty
could
what
situation:
source
of wealth.
Nature
as simple
the
explored
seas
and
the
sky
. . .
reverses
of non-technicalness
the
as
a
a
becomes
pass
deficiency
positive
with Nature
technical
reveals
rapport
claim
quantity,
inertia,
exteriority:
nature
dies.
his haughty refusal to be homo fabery the negro gives
By
it life
of one of the members

of the "man
again. As if the passiveness
nature"
Ac
the other's
necessarily
couple
produced
activity.
not
is
since
it
the
flesh
tually, n?gritude
passiveness,
"perforates
of the
sky and of the earth":

imitation
pears like an active
first of all an act on oneself.
immobilizes
on
himself
a bird-charmer,
come to
and things
this fake tree. A magic
of
inveigling
silence and rest?is
involved
here: the white
like
the branches
perch
the world?through
it is "patience,"
and patience
ap
of passiveness.
act is
The
negro's
The
black man
stands erect and
of
man, by acting first of all on Nature, loses himself when he

loses Nature; the negro, by acting first of all on himself, claims
to win Nature
Seized,
while
they
winning
abandon
himself.
themselves
to the
essence
of
every thing
ignorant of the surfaces but seized by the movement
every thing
of
37
The Massachusetts
but playing
heedless of counting,
the
truly
porous
sons
elder
to all
the
movement
Upon
famous
lished
of
game
. . .
from the very
the world.
C?saire
by Bergson.
the world
of
flesh palpitating
this, one
between
reading
distinction
the world's
the world
of
breaths
flesh of the world's
Review
Omniscient
can
hardly
help
and
intelligence
us
calls
rightly
and
na?ve
conquerors.
thinking
intuition
of
the
estab
. . .
all. But he only

knows
tools, the white man
scratches
the surface of things; he is unaware
of the duration
of
unaware
on
the
of
life.
is
contrary,
compre
N?gritude,
things,
instinctive
secret
The black man's
hension
through
congeniality.
of his
Because
is that
the
sources
of his
existence
and
the
roots
of Being
are
identical.
If one wanted
a sociological
to give
of this
interpretation
an
one
that
would
is here
say
poetry
agriculturist
metaphysic,
an
to
not
true
it
is
that
the
prose. Actually,
engineer
opposed
no
man
the
has
black
between
any human
rapport
techniques:
is always
in one way or
and the exterior world
technical
group
I shall say that C?saire
another.
And
is imprecise:
inversely,
a carpet
the
earth
like
Saint Exup?ry's
below
folding
airplane
is first of all
of disclosure.
the black man
is a means
However,
a peasant;
is
it
technique
"righteous
agricultural
patience";
to
trusts in life; it waits. To plant
is
the earth; after
impregnate
atom of
remain motionless
and watch:
"each
that, you must
is a chance
each instant brings

forth a
ripe fruit,"
than man gave, whereas
the worker
finds
as
as
much
in the manufactured
he put into it;
only
product
man grows
his
wheat:
to minute
with
from
minute
he
along
more
himself
and
becomes
he
intervenes
goes beyond
golden;
silence
hundred
for
times more
in this watchful wait before the fragile swelling belly, only to

is a microcosm
protect. Ripe wheat
for
and rains was needed
sun, wind
is both
the most
natural
thing
and
the cooperation
because
of
a blade of wheat
it to grow;
the most
chance.
improbable
38
Black Orpheus
have
Techniques
the white
but the black
peasant,
of the earth, the world's
sperm.
his work
is the yearly
patience;
contaminated
the great male
remains
peasant
His
existence
is great vegetal
coitus. Creating
and nourished
he
of
because
repetition
holy
to
creates. To
to
to
nature.
is
make
love
with
eat,
till,
plant,
The
sexual
these
of
pantheism
is undoubtedly
poets
what
will
impress us first of all: it is in this that they join the dances and
the phallic
Oho
May
For,
rites of the Negro-Africans.

!Congo lying in your bed of forests, queen of tamed Africa
the phalli of the mountains carry your banner high
through my head, through my tongue, through my
you
belly,
writes
are
a woman,
And:
Senghor.
and so I shall mount

the
and
gleaming
thighs
the
of
. . .
day.
and Rab?arivelo
the
again the soft belly of the dunes
earth's
the
blood,
sweat
stone's
and
the
sperm
of
the world
and Laleau:
The
And
conical drum laments under the sky

it is the very soul of the black man
Sultry
the
Outraging
we
Here,
is no longer
are
of men
spasms
calm
in rut,
of
the
lover's
sticky
sobs
evening.
far from Bergson's

chaste asexual
It
intuition.
of being
with
rather
but
congenial
life,
a matter
of being
in love with
all its forms. For
the white
technician,
an
is first of all
God
orders
chaos and pre
engineer.
Jupiter
scribes its laws; the Christian God conceives the world through
his understanding and brings it into being through his will: the
relation
between
the
created
and
the
creator
is never
carnal,
39
The Massachusetts
Review
a
the Church
for a few mystics
whom
looks upon with
has nothing
in
so, erotic mysticism
great deal of suspicion. Even
common with
a
is
it
the
wait
for
fecundity:
passive
completely
are steeped
come
statuettes
in alluvium:
sterile penetration.
We
from
the hands
of the divine
If the manufactured
sculptor.
us
could worship
their
ancestors,
objects
they
surrounding
except
adore us as we adore
the All-powerful.
undoubtedly
our black
on
comes
out of
the
poets,
contrary,
Being
a
an
enor
like
is
Creation
erect;
penis becoming
Nothingness
would
For
mous perpetual delivery;

on
the
wind,
sea and
in the
the Negro
finds
the world is flesh and the son of flesh;
on the rocks,
in the
sky, on the dunes,
the softness of human
him
he
rubs
skin;
self against the sand's belly, against the sky's loins: he is "flesh
of the flesh of this world"; he is "porous to all its breaths," to
its pollens;
he is both Nature's
a woman
he makes
love with
seems to him to be the celebration
all
female
and
when
of his
race,
is like
This
spermatic
religion
two complementary
between
an erect phallus,
of being
of
the Mystery
of a soul
a growing
one of being
feminine
a
sort
of
basically
androgyny.
of Being.
tension
tendencies:
and that more
more
There
the
its male;
and
sexual act
the
balancing
the dynamic
deaf, more
Thus
plant.
feeling
patient,
n?gritude
are
you
and naked
Upright
alluvium
are
you
and
remember
yourself
as
having
been
but in reality you are the child of this parturient shadow

feeding on lunar lactogen7
then you slowly take the form of a bole
on this low wall jumped over by the dreams of flowers
and
the
perfume
of
summer
at rest.
To feel, to believe that roots are pushing your feet

and running and twisting like thirsty serpents
toward
some
subterranean
spring
..
(Rab?arivelo)
7
"lactogen":
This
is a neologism
in the French
text
as well.
40
is
Black Orpheus
And C?saire:
Wornout
This
leafless
mother,
and
now
wear
and
you
are
husks.
only
a stand
only
are
of
couis.
of vegetal
unity
profound
are
you
a calabash
mother,
You
flamboyant8
tree
. . .9
sexual
and
is cer
symbols
tainly the greatest originality of black poetry, especially

most
in a
the
shown,
when,
Carrouges
to mineralize
the human being.
images used by white poets tend
on
"animalizes"
the
sea, sky
contrary,
"vegetalizes,"
C?saire,
a
is
his
and stones. More
poetry
coupling
perpetual
precisely,
as Michel
period
has
of
into animals,
been metamorphosed
and beasts metamor
stones,
stones, with
plants
vegetables,
the Black man attests to a natural Eros;
into men. Thus
phosed
in
he reveals
and incarnates
it; to find a point of comparison
to
one
the
must
back
go
peasant
Lucretius,
poetry,
European
of men
and women
have
who
Rome
when
the mother
celebrated
Venus,
poet who
goddess,
market.
was not yet much more
than a large agricultural
a cosmic
me
seems
to
to
have
had
Lawrence
time, only
for sexuality.
works.
so, this
Even
feeling
remains
very
In our
literary
feeling
in his
seems basically
to be this im
However,
n?gritude
although
a unity
and plant
erection
of
mobile
phallic
springing-forth,
one
exhaust
with
it
this
could
single
scarcely
poetic
growth,
is another motif
this collection,
theme. There
through
running
like a large
Those
artery:
who
know
They
suffering.
To
the
absurd
have
invented
the most
remote
neither
powder
corners
of the
nor
. . .
compass
country
of
. . .
utilitarian
agitation
of
the white
man,
the
black man opposes the authenticity gained from his suffering;

8
a
found
in semi-tropical
in the
countries,
especially
flamboyant:
plant
a
or
Antilles:
flower,
(translator's
note)
foinciana
feacock
9
some
couis:
of tree
found
in the Antilles,
kind
(translator's
apparently
note)
41
The Massachusetts
the black
race
privilege
of
is conscious
depths
are anti-Christian
of
it has
the horrible
even
And
had
unhappiness.
from beginning
for the white
suffering
man.
the judgment
On
upon
himself
day, Armstrong's
of man's
interpreter
as the man
sees himself
of himself
of human
even
all,
poems
the
to end,
call n?gritude a kind of Passion: the black man who
one might
the whole
race because
is a chosen
touching
these
though
Review
who
and who
trumpet will
has
taken
suffers
for
be the
sufferings.
(PaulNiger)
a re
that this in no way
immediately
implies
was
I
A
while
about
ago
signed
speaking
suffering.
Bergson
now
to quote
I would
and Lucretius;
be tempted
that great
us note
Let
and his "Dionysianism."

of Christianity:
Nietzsche
adversary
to penetrate
Like
the
the
the Dionysian
negro
attempts
poet,
a
brilliant
the
and
thousand
of
feet
encounters,
day,
phantasm
the inexpiable
under
is
the Apollonian
surface,
suffering which
one
man.
one
essence
to
wished
the universal
of
If
systematize,
the whole
of nature
would
say that the Black man blends with
in as much
as he
in as much
as he
represents
claims he
if one
and
with Life
congeniality
of rebellious
in his Passion
feel the fundamental unity of this double
suffering. One will

movement
sexual
isMan
considers
the constantly
tighter
relationship
and sexual desire.
between
anguish
can be equally well
which
There
proud upheaval
or as suf
as a desire plunging
its roots into suffering
described
a
across
a
vast
This
cosmic
desire.
sword
fixed
like
fering
evokes
is both vegetal
that C?saire
growth
"righteous
patience"
which
psychiatrists
is only one
and patience
the negro;
establish
in the very muscles

of
it resides
suffering;
against
a thousand miles
the black porter going
it sustains
up the Niger
under a blinding
sun with
a fifty-pound
load
if in a certain sense, one can compare

a proliferation
to
in an
of suffering,
fecundity
one
is also Dionysian?this
other sense?and
this
by
fecundity,
creative
in
its
it
drowns
its exuberance,
goes beyond
suffering,
balanced
the
on his head.
But
of Nature
42
Black Orpheus
which
abundance
to understand
one must
in order
is poetry,
love and dance. Perhaps,
eros
of
and
indissoluble
unity
joy,
suffering,
seen the Black men of Harlem
dance frenetically
this
have
to the rhythm
of "blues,"
In
world.
rhythm
effect,
black soul, communicates
dionysian
of these
are
which
the
saddest
in the
sounds
cements
the multiple
aspects
its Nietzschian
with
lightness
of
the
heavy
the
intuitions;
rhythm?tam-tam,
jazz,
"bounding"
the temporality
of negro
existence.
a
to
his
better
fu
brothers
prophesies
poems?represents
a black poet
when
And
he
ture,
their
portrays
to
deliverance
them
in the
form
of
rhythm:
What?
rhythm
wave
sound
a new
in the
night
across
the
forests,
nothing?or
soul
timbre
intonation
vigor
dilation
vibration which flows out by degrees into the marrow
revulses10 in its progression an old sleeping body, takes
it by the waist
and spins it
turns
and
and once more

sexual
But
vibrates in its hands,

its thighs,
member,
its
vagina
in its loins, its

. . .
one must
this basic experience

of suf
go still further:
is
black
to
conscience
is
through
it,
fering
ambiguous;
going
historic.
In effect, whatever
become
be
the
intolerable
may
it is not to that condition
that
iniquity of his present
condition,
the black man first refers when he proclaims
that he has touched
the heart of human suffering. He

having
10
known
revulses:
(translator's
bondage.
referring
to
For
the
these
medical
has the horrible benefit of

poets,
term
most
revulsion:
of whom
were
counter-irritant,
note)
43
The Massachusetts
1900
born
between
tury
earlier?lingers
Review
and
half
1918,
slavery?abolished
on as a very real memory:
a cen
Each of my todays looks on my yesterday

with large eyes rolling with rancor with
shame
Still real ismy stunned condition of the past

of
blows from knotted cords of bodies calcinated
from toe to calcinated back
of dead flesh of red iron firebrands of arms
broken under the whip which is breaking loose . . .
writes
a poet
Damas,
. . .Often
Awaken
And
from Guiana.
And
the Haitian,
Brierre:
like me you feel stiffnesses

after
murderous
old wounds
centuries
bleed in your flesh .. .
the black man

the
of slavery,
drank
the centuries
During
and slavery
to the last drop;
is a past fact
cup of bitterness
nor their fathers have actually
ex
our authors
which
neither
a hideous
even
from
which
it
is
But
also
nightmare
perienced.
awakened.
the youngest
of them are not yet sure of having
one
to
the other, black men?separated
From
end of the earth
by languages,
politics
a collective
memory
one
recalls
and the history

This
in common.
of their
will
colonizers?have
not
in
the French
if
be surprising
were
still
1789,
who,
peasants
terrors
back to the Hundred
that went
the panicky
man
war. Thus
the black
when
Years'
goes back to his prin
to him in two dimen
revealed
it is suddenly
cipal experience,
aware
only
of
sions: it is both the intuitive seizure of the human condition and

the still-fresh
Pascal
memory
of a historic
who
past. Here,
that man
I am thinking
of
an irrational
was
relentlessly
repeated
his greatness
and history,
of metaphysics
unexplain
composite
comes
his
if
from
the
able if he
alluvium,
misery
unexplainable
that in order to understand
he is still as God made
man,
him;
one had to go back to the simple basic fact of man's downfall.

44
Black Orpheus
is in this sense that C?saire
calls his race "the fallen
race."
in a certain sense I can see the rapprochement
that can be
between
conscience
and Christian
conscience:
black
made
the
It
And
brazen
evokes
law of slavery
states the consequences
which
slavery
man's
white
this
recalls
other
that
of
law
the Old
of
the Fault.
The
Testament,
abolition
historic
of
white
The
fact: Redemption.
1848 resembles
after
that of the
insipid paternalism
the Passion.
The
God
after
difference
however,
being,
that the expiable fault that the black man discovers in the back
of his memory
is not his own,
to the white
it belongs
the
man;
first fact of negro history is certainly a kind of original sin: but

the black man
is the
innocent
victim
of
it. This
is why
his
con
to white
is radically
"dolorism."
If
cept of suffering
opposed
are for the most
these poems
part so violently
anti-Christian,
a hoax
it is because
the white man's
is more
in
religion
clearly
the eyes of the negro
than in the eyes of the European
prole
to make him share the
tariate: this religion wants
responsibility
for a crime of which
to persuade
he is the victim;
it wants
him
to see the kidnappings,
the massacres,
the rapes and the tortures
as a legitimate
which
have covered Africa with blood,
punish
tests.
Will
that
deserved
it also proclaims
ment,
you say
equal
ity for all men before God? Before God, yes. Only yesterday I
was
in Esprit
reading
Madagascar
these
lines
from
I am as certain as you that the soul of a Malagasy

a white
man.
in
correspondent
. . .
Just
as,
soul of his father. However,

your children drive it.
before
God,
the
if you have
soul
of
isworth
a
child
an automobile,
the soul of
is worth
the
you don't
let
can hardly
more
reconcile
and colonialism
Christianity
to
In
these
the
black
elegantly.
opposition
sophisms,
man?by
a simple
as a former
of his memory
slave?affirms
investigation
One
that suffering
is man's
lot and that it is no less deserved
for all
that. He
horror
with
Christian
rejects
stagnation,
melancholy
sensual
masochistic
and all the tendentious
pleasure,
humility
to his submission;
inducements
he lives the absurdity
of suffer
45
The Massachusetts
Review
in its pure form,

in its injustice
and in its gratuitousness;
or
he discovers
this truth which
is misunderstood
thereby
own
masked
carries
within
its
itself
by Christianity:
suffering
a
to suffer, it is the dark side of
it is by nature
refusal;
refusal
onto
it
and liberty. The
black man
revolt
opens
negativity,
as
as the
much
in
into history
transforms
promptly
himself
ing
and
intuition
of
to him
in the
future.
present
surging
of universal
and
eternal
signs
was a sheer
ifestation
his colored
a collective
past and as
a short while
ago, he
Only
man
a
of timeless
instincts,
simple
on him
confers
suffering
a goal
another
in quite
brothers
Now
fecundity.
he
calls
to
language:
Negro pedlar of revolt

you have known the paths of the world
ever
since
you
were
sold
have
seen
in Guin?e
. . .
with
weapons
And:
Five
centuries
you
in your hands
and you have taught the exploiting
passion for liberty.
races
a black Epic:11
is already
first
the golden
age of
the era of dispersion
then
then
the
and captivity,
Africa,
the
heroic
and
of
times
of
somber
great
conscience,
awakening
and black heroes,
then the
of Toussaint
Louverture
revolts,
There
fact of the abolition

says C?saire?then
of slavery?"unforgettable
for definitive
the struggle
metamorphosis,"
liberation:
You are waiting for the next call

the inevitable mobilization
for that war which is yours has known only truces
for there is no land where your blood has not flowed
no language inwhich your color has not been insulted
You
smile, Black Boy,
you sing
11
Epic:
comparing
(translator's
the French
the
negro
here
Epic
reads
with
"Geste"
the
themes
as in Chanson
of Medieval
de Geste;
is
Sartre
French
epic poetry,
note)
46
Black Orpheus
you
dance
you
cradle
generations
which go out at all hours to the

fronts of work and pain
which tomorrow will assault bastilles
onward toward the bastions of the future
in order
to write
in all
languages
on the clear pages of all skies

the declaration of your rights unrecognized
for more
than
and decisive
five
centuries
turn:
race
. . .
is transmuted
into historicity,
is
explodes
temporalized,
n?gritude?
with
its Past and its Future?is
inserted
into Universal
History,
a state, nor even an existential
it is no longer
it is a
attitude,
to
the
evolution
contribution
the
Human
of
black
"Becoming";
a bouquet
of
taste, rhythm,
ity is no longer savour,
authenticity,
Strange
the black
and
Present
a
instincts:
it is a dated
enterprize,
primitive
long-suffering
man
construction
and also a future.
the Black
Previously,
sun
name
his place
in the
claimed
in the
of ethnic qualities;
to life on his mission;
his right
and this
now, he establishes
comes
to
the
him
from
his
like
historic
mission,
proletariat's,
he
from
has
suffered
because
position:
capitalistic
exploitation
more
the others, he has acquired

than all the others.
of liberty more
than all
a love
most
he necessarily
pursues
for his own deliverance:
oppressed,
he works
when
a sense
because
the
liberation
of hope
Black messenger
you know all the hymns of the world
even those of the timeless building-works
But,
after
geneousness
Sometimes
spreads
in a moment
itself
he
is the
of
all,
of the Nile.
in the interior
still believe
homo
that, can we
And
how can one say that it exists?
of n?gritude?
in some
it is lost innocence which
had its existence
faraway past, and sometimes

within
the walls
of the future
Nature
and
of revolt
And
out
hope
City.
which
can be realized
Sometimes
it contracts
only
with
of
fusion
and sometimes
pantheistic
to coincide with
the whole
of Human
history
47
it
The Massachusetts
it is an existential
sometimes
ity;
objective
covered?
who
works
of negro-African
it being
After
created?
ensemble
Is
"collaborate";
of each poet,
after
all,
Review
attitude
and
traditions.
sometimes
the
Is it being dis
are black men
all, there
in the prefaces
he writes
for the
seems to distinguish
de
between
Senghor
Does
the poet who would
grees of n?gritude.
for his colored
invite them to become
brothers
be
the Prophet
or
negro,
more
to them what
they are, by a sort of poetic psy
or liberty? For the authentic
Is
choanalysis?
necessity
n?gritude
a
as con
matter
is
it
from essences,
of conduct deriving
negro,
does
he disclose
or is one a negro
in the way
from a principle,
derive
sequences
are believers,
that the religious
that is to say in fear and
faithful
remorse
in perpetual
for never
in anguish,
being
trembling,
one
a
to
what
Is
like
it
fact or a value?
would
be?
enough
given
or of a moral
Is it a
intuition
The
concept?
object of empiric
Or does meditation
of meditation?
it? Is it
conquest
poison
never
and
immedi
when
in
authentic
unmeditated
the
except
Is it a systematic
of the black soul, or a Platonic
explanation
one can approach
ever
without
which
indefinitely
Archetype
our
common
Is it, for black men,
like
engineer's
attaining?
Or do some
shared thing in the world?
sense, the most widely
ate?
and if so, does it have its chosen ones? One

answer
that it is all
this question
by saying
undoubtedly
And
I
like all
of these at once, and still other
agree:
things.
a
and
shimmer
of being
is
notions,
N?gritude
anthropological
of needing-to-be;
it: both oath and
it makes
you and you make
have
it, like grace;
will
even more
in it: the
is something
important
a
creates
kind
racism.
have
antiracist
of
negro himself,
said,
no
to
he
desires
the
the
He
in
dominate
world:
wishes
way
passion.
But
there
we
abolition of all kinds of ethnic privileges;
he asserts his solidar
the oppressed
of every color. After
that, the subjective,
as Hegel
of
notion
ethnic
says,
n?gritude
existential,
"passes,"
one
and
has of the proletariat:
into that which
objective,
positive
ity with
says: "For C?saire,cWhite'

symbolizes
precise. Senghor
capital,
. . When
.
as
work.
about
the
symbolizes
just
writing
Negro
about the worldwide
black men of his race, he is writing
prole
it
tarian struggle."
It is easy to say, not so easy to think. And
48
Black Orpheus
is certainly
N?gritude
of race does
the most
not just by accident

that
are also militant
Marxists.
not mix
cantors
of
the notion
Nevertheless,
of class: the former
the notion
with
ardent
is con
one be
and abstract;
the latter, universal
and particular;
to
to
what
and
the
other
calls comprehension,
longs
Jaspers
of a psycho-biological
the first is the product
syn
intellection;
a
construction
with
other
is
the
methodic
and
cretism,
starting
crete
In fact, N?gritude
like the up-beat
appears
[un
experience.
a
and
the theoretical
accented
dialectical
of
beat]
progression:
the posi
is the thesis;
affirmation
of white
supremacy
practical
as an antithetical
is the moment
of
tion of N?gritude
value
is not
moment
But this negative
black men who use it know
negativity.
and these
sufficient
in itself,
this perfectly
well;
or realization
the synthesis
they
at preparing
of the
is for de
in a raceless
human
society. Thus
N?gritude
being
an
a
not
"arrival
to"
and
it
is
at," a
itself,
"crossing
stroying
a black
means
and not an end. A poem by Jacques Roumain,
of this new
furnishes
the most moving
evidence
communist,
know
it aims
that
ambiguity:
I have held on to your memory
Africa
you
are
a thorn
Like
in a wound
like a guardian mascot

of me
make
Africa
in me
the
in the center of the village
stone
of your
sling
of my mouth the lips of your wound

of my knees the broken columns of your humbling
however
With
I want
to be only of your race
peasant
workers
what
sadness
of all
countries.
still
retains
he
decided to abandon! With

as a negro
pride
is in him like
Africa
his
to be only
the empire
of
for
of afflicted
other
he has
strip
He
who
that
men!
says both
in a wound"
and that he wants
race
conscience.
will disappear completely:
what
what pride as a man he will
"a thorn
the universal
for a moment
of
One
the oppressed,
has not left
more
step and N?gritude
the negro himself makes of what

49
The Massachusetts
Review
a
the mysterious
of black blood,
bubbling
geographical
determinism:
inconsistent
of
universal
the
cident,
product
was
ac
Is it all that climate extended space

which creates clan tribe nation
race
skin
gods
our inexorable dissimilarity.12

have the courage
But the poet does not completely
for this rationalization
of the racial
the responsibility
a bitter
one sees that he limits himself
to questioning;
to accept
concept;
is
regret
humiliated
and
to unite.
road:
Strange
to find their
themselves
within
offended,
deep
at
most
secret pride;
have
it
and when
found
last, it chal
they
own
to
exist:
its
supreme
lenges
through
generosity
they
right
his bow and arrows
abandon
abandoned
it, just as Philoctetes
visible
his will
search
black men
beneath
at Neoptolemus.
Thus
finds the secret
the rebel C?saire
in the bottom
revolts
of his heart: he is of royal blood:
is true that there is in you something which
?it
never
been
able
an
to
a desire,
anger,
yield,
a violence
in short a scorn,
impatience,
not
not
mud
veins
; pride,
your
carry
gold,
an
you have been King
King
.But he
thrusts
immediately
has
a sadness,
. . . and now
servitude.
in the past.
aside
this temptation:
is a law that I cover up with a chain unbroken
There
as
of his
as the
far
confluence
of fire
violates
which
me
purifies me and burns me with my prism of amal
which
gamated
gold.
...
I shall
perish.
But
one. Whole.
that has snatched

of man
is perhaps
this ultimate
nudity
his black armor,
from him the white
rags that were
concealing
that very armor;
it is perhaps
and rejects
and that now destroys
for Negri
that
this colorless
best
symbolizes
N?gritude:
nudity
It
12
there
Although
should
this was
be
the
a
translated,
poem
question
itself
mark
(translator's
and
Sartre's
there
here,
interpretation
in
is none
of
the
it
text
that
suggest
from which
note)
50
Black Orpheus
a state,
is not
tude
it is a simple
it is love.
going-beyond-itself,
It is when n?gritude renounces itself that it finds itself; it is

the colored man?and
it accepts losing that it has won:
he
to
renounce
the
He
is
asked
his
color.
the
be
pride of
one who
on this ridge between
is walking
past particularism?
when
alone?can
which he has just climbed?and future universalism, which will

be the twilight of his n?gritude; he is the one who looks to the
end of particularism in order to find the dawn of the universal.
the white worker
also becomes
conscious
of his
a
to deny
wants
he
the
advent
class
of
since
it,
less society: but once again,
the definition
of class is objective;
it sums up only the conditions
of the white worker's
alienation;
Undoubtedly,
class in order
whereas it is in the bottom of his heart that the negro finds race,
and he must tear out his heart. Thus N?gritude is dialectical; it
is not
nor
only
it represents
above
"going
all
the blossoming
a situation
beyond"
of atavistic
defined
by
instincts;
free con
sciences. N?gritude is a sadmyth full of hope, born of Evil and

pregnant with future Good, living like a woman who is born to
die
and who
her
life;
renounces
whereas
it also
lived
feels
her own death
it is an unstable
an
itself,
in the richest moments
even
an explosive
that knows
rest,
absolute
of
fixity, a pride which

for
it is transitory:
it is the Announcer of its birth and of its death agony,

remains
the existential
absolutely,
Past
nostalgic
into which
Because
the black
and
by free men
a
it is tension
between
chosen
attitude
to the fullest.
man
can no
enter
longer
completely and a future in which it will be replaced by new

values, N?gritude adorns itself with a tragic beauty that finds
expression only in poetry. Because it is the living and dialectical
unity of so many opposites, because it is a Complex defying
analysis, N?gritude is only the multiple unity of a hymn that
can reveal both it and the flashing beauty of the Poem which
Breton
calls
ceptualize
"explosante-fixe"
its various
aspects
its relativity,?even
consciences?and
royal
poetry
alone
that will
Because
would
any
necessarily
attempt
end up
to
con
showing
though it is lived in the absolute through

the poem
is an absolute,
it is
at
the unconditional
of
this
aspect
because
allow
titude to be fixed. Because it is subjectivity written
in the objec
51
The Massachusetts
that is to say in a
in a poem,
it is an Archetype
and a Value,
it
in
aesthetic
be
transparent
symbol
values;
must
tive, N?gritude
Review
take
form
because
subjectivity-object;
will
find its most
cause it is a call and a gift, it will make itself heard and offer
itself only by means of a work of art which is both a call to the
spectator's
content
of
mysterious
self. One
Narcissus'
is the
and absolute
liberty
generosity.
N?gritude
it is the poem
the poem,
like a thing of the world,
and open, obscure and suggestive;
it is the poet him
must
and
words
of Narcissism
and
triumph
soul beyond
culture,
beyond
all psychic
luminous
of un
facts,
night
and of what Ba
choice of the impossible
still
go
tension
suicide,
beyond
deliberate
knowing,
taille
calls "torture"
and
world
refusal
further;
of the
intuitive
[supplice],
in the name
of the world
of the
acceptance
of "the law of the
double
retraction,
contradictory
postulation,
demanding
For
in
of
essence, Poetry.
is,
expansion
generosity?N?gritude
once at least,
and
the
authentic
the most
revolutionary
plan
most pure poetry
come from the same source.
heart,"
And if the sacrifice is achieved one day, what will happen

then? What will happen if, casting off his n?gritude for the
sake of the Revolution,
the black man
no longer
wishes
to con
sider himself only a part of the proletariat? What will happen

if he then allows himself to be defined only by his objective
he
condition?
against white
capitalism,
if, in order to struggle
the source of po
to assimilate
white
technics? Will
undertakes
the great
black
will
etry run dry? or in spite of everything,
does not matter:
it flows? That
river color the sea into which
in each era, circumstances
of history
its poetry;
situa
elect a nation, a race, a class to take up the torch, by creating
or that can go beyond
themselves
tions that can be expressed
era has
each
sometimes
the poetic ?lan coincides with
only through Poetry;
us
Let
the revolutionary
?lan and sometimes
they diverge.
to
black men
chance that will permit
greet
today the historic
shout out the great negro cry so hard that the
world's foundations will be shaken.18
13
C?saire,
Les
armes
miraculeuses,
p.
156.
52

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The Massachusetts Review, Inc.

up the creation like

white like truth, white like virtue?lighted

the secret white

its first American

Indian poets, edited by Leopold S?dar-Senghor

Firm fleshed ripe fruit, somber ecstasies of black wine.

from the city

no longer know how to dance in the evening by moonlight

in our own eyes. She is no more

to live in; she has drifted

to the white world

its steel-blue stiffnesses piercing mystical flesh

pride in itself; neither do I think that workers are less gifted

will be the instrument of his liberation; he knows that it is only

on each and every one, and reduced

of the old bourgeois

of the self with

emplary image of their N?gritude

look into his own

the first revolutionary will be the harbinger of the black soul,

be a poet in the literal sense of "vates."

effusions: it is functional, it answers a need which

white poetry: you will find a hundred different subjects, de

gaze all by itself:

begins by exile. It is a double exile: the exile of his body offers

all of the poems

the other exile:

him; he himself rubs up against its silky wing;

loftiest demands, like his shrouded, betrayed childhood, and

in the shadow of its laws

be able to say that

to the four corners of the

the language that will

furnish the black poet with

for them, that Damas,

each other only

does not correspond

obsessing heart which

And on which encroach, like a clinging-root,

Of ever taming with words from France

drinks blood. If he suddenly gorges himself,

lying prostrate in front of him?strange: half signs and half

little steps of caterpillar rain

with little steps like seismic shocks

before he thinks of writing poetry, in him, the light of white

black and naked

lives and speaks

this poem, black is color; better still, light;

In this sense, these black men

black like misery

from my blood's night

flickering of Being and of Non-being

which is perhaps nowhere

statue, a stone in its fore

The poet will go even further; he writes:

faces like the true operative

this abstract eloquence

says that the negro

destruction of this borrowed clarity which falls from the white

haunt our days?embody

in order to build his Truth,

the dark work of Negativity

recalls that of the humiliated negro?insulted