Long Noire Poems

Translation of Eric Mottram’s Courbet: Elegy 8 by T. Wignesan

Blanches oeuvres ouvertes
résident dans les jours
la surface du banc de travail est noire
les géraniums-lierres
les fougères et les adragans
accumulent leurs oeuvres et jours:
La toile noire de Courbet
un...

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Mama – Translation of Kevin Gilbert’s « Mum » by T. Wignesan

Kevin Gilbert (July 10, 1933 – April 1, 1993) - father of Irish-English ancestry, mother an aboriginal from New South Wales - was orphaned...

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Les Protecteurs – Translation of Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s “The Protectors” by T. Wignesan

(Note: Oodgeroo never claimed to write poetry à la manière des poètes occidentaux; she said - without mincing words – her lines were sheer...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s KRIM: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY TO SEPTEMBER 1989 - I by T. Wignesan

( This poem is from the collection, ESTUARIES: Poems 1989-91. Twickenham: Solaris, 1992, 62p. Pub. by Yasmin and Peterjon Skelt. Back...

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From 2010. Narrator is Robert Gibbs, snooty White House Press Secretary.

Lay, O Lord, a curse on press men, rude and churlish, sad, obsessed men 
Who persist to query me on matters they know I must...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s PEACE PROJECT 9 - le Projet de la paix 9 by T. Wignesan

…………………..Comme gel sous l’eau noire, sommeil fatale, crapaud.  
………..’Sade’ - Le Marteau sans Maître - (René) Char

la laideur...

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I would stay for hours,
Waiting for a nice bee to land,
On the small purple flowers of a fuchsia, or heather,
I would wait for hours,
As if the future of the planet depended on it,
I would stay...

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The Devil's Dead Roses
A prelude to the Bete Noire 

Please stop Please stop
Don't look at my face
Please stop Please stop 
Don't look at my face.          ...

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STAND WITH A FACE OF HUMILITY

Thou curse a great angel to fall 
from the heavens of glory and power,
though let man build towers for himself alone
letting him gaze on earth down.
Daggers are unknown but 
they...

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Since the bloody Battle of Hastings
When 'Arold got killed by French Bill
We've seen an endless invasion of French
And I've just about had my fill

Don't we have enough words of our own
In this wonderful language of...

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Noire,greenish and poisonous,
cold freezing,
in heaps,
incoherent and sad,
in flakes that were shambles,
she was an emotional wreck,
some black african mamba had bitten,
and bitten deep in,
soul had been torn,
and faith was tattered and worn,
she was at mercy of...

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All French cakes are delicious, better
The “ Amandier” and its subtle nuts taste in the mouth,
The “Paris-Brest”, with its sweet praline cream,
Rum Baba, with its sweet taste of liqueur,

The “tarte aux fraises” and its sweet...

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now ...

dance for me …
eyes of polished onyx pierce
me like the keen edge of a scalpel,
deftly wielded ...
the blood of my black
heart flowing in and around you,
warm and welcomed to your
wings and wants ...
the aspiration...

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I see on a canvas, this face
The distant look, as detached from the world,
Behind me ,trying to decipher shadows
The unstable condition of the wind, and the ignored face of the days ...

Or maybe just,
A look...

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There he is again/searching...
for me - the object of his disdain/
his bete noire

Looking at him through the facets of my vision...
- He is a hulking one of them

The ones who seek to cut off my...

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Take me away,
from my family, friends and the society,
In a hearse or the Bugatti La Voiture Noire.
Take me away,
from the surface of the earth and the Black Race,
Like a pest on a crop,
The truth must...

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"Tsundoku Tower"


Bluebird windowsill
peers in, strange terrain
“Rain Rain Go Away”,
mysterious singing 
eerie refrain.
Ghost Girl sitting still
tears falling 
she is haunting 
Tsundoku Tower 
laying vacant 
on Treeless Hill.

Looks up 
her glow attracts 
all the Tiger Moths, 
are...

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Bete Noire

What is this
What is this coming at me
What is this coming at me
Stop this coming at me
Stop this coming at me
Take it off
Just take it off
Take off your fuqqing mask
Take off your fuqqing mask
And...

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Bete Noire

What is this
What is this coming at me
What is this coming at me
Stop this coming at me
Stop this coming at me
Take it off
Just take it off
Take off your fuqqing mask
Take off your fuqqing mask
And...

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translation below


Noir
Le noir, la nuit,rêves vides
Tu n’a jamais vu la noirceur comme moi
Le matin, tu te réveilles inlassablement
Le soleil, la pluie, un autre jour
Vous existez, moi, je rêve d'exister
Je dois faire naitre mon existence
Pour l'instant
Le...

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'Tis I, your ruin ...
I, the scourge, unseen ... the "C" word
I am death's abettor, the bête noire
So do your worst, in my ruthless wake

The cold chaos of cells that rages rampant
Weaponizing blood and bone...

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A love sacred to the sinister garden
blossomed fruits set with arcane knowledge.
You are the original that danced, 
among the ebony. The one with a heart … that
only knew, nonconforming. Forbidden amour!

Oh love, the one who...

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In my family, a convent in Lucerne, Switzerland loomed legend large. 
It’s name is “La Madone Noire” (the Black Madonna) and according to my mom, it is a “finishing school” where captious girls, who lied...

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-

Soon
the moon is black,
she is in mourning of the evening

Over the garden’s stones
Shadows are getting longer
from tomorrow

The confusion of the sky
The seedling of comets
The pulse of the planets

Will do nothing with the future
Just the scent...

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Sssssst….."Silencesssssss……that'sssss…what I likesssss…."
The snake hisses and slithers incognito
In a dark alley lit by red lanterns
It believes all lives belong to it
A fool's belief, people may say
Words travel around returning with echoes
Banging sound waves to the...

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