Sony Labou Tansi (1947-1995), writer and playwright, was based in Congo Brazzaville recognized as the father of Francophone literature.
Writings : 'La Vie et demie, Seuil, 1979 , 'L'État honteux', Seuil, 1981 ; 'Lèse-majesté', ACCT, 1982 ; 'L'Anté-peuple', Seuil, 1983, Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire ; 'Les sept solitudes de Lorsa Lopez', Seuil, 1985. Palme de la Francophonie ; 'Les Yeux du volcan', Seuil, 1988 ; 'Le Coup de vieux', Présence Africaine, 1988 ; 'Le Commencement des douleurs', Seuil, 1995 ; 'L'Autre Monde', Revue noire, 1997.
Theatre : 'La Parenthèse de sang', suivi de 'Je soussigné cardiaque', Hatier, 1981 ; 'Moi, veuve de l'empire', L'Avant-Scène, 1987 ; 'Qui a mangé madame d'Avoine Bergotha', Lansman, 1989 ; 'La Résurrection rouge et blanche de Roméo et Juliette', revue Acteurs, 1990 ; 'Une chouette petite vie bien osée', Lansman, 1992 ; 'Une vie en arbre et chars...bons', Lansman, 1992 ; 'Théâtre complet', 2 volumes, Lansman, 1995 ; 'Antoine m'a vendu son destin', Accoria, 1997 ; 'La Rue des mouches', Éditions Théâtrales, 2005 ; 'Qui a mangé Madame d'Avoine Bergotha', Lansman, 2014 ; 'Qu'ils le disent, qu'elles le beuglent', Lansman, 2014 ;: 'Une vie en arbre et chars... bonds', Lansman, 2015 ; 'Une chouette petite vie bien osée', Lansman, 2015
Poesy : 'Poèmes et vents lisses', Le Bruit des autres, 1995 ; 'Poèmes', édition critique, coord. Claire Riffard et Nicolas Martin-Granel, en coll. avec Céline Gahungu, Paris, Éditions du CNRS, coll. « Planète Libre », 2015
Published works in English : 'Parentheses of Blood, a play'. Trans. Lorraine Alexander Veach. New York: Ubu Repertory Theater Publications, 1986 ; 'The Antipeople, a novel'. Trans. J.A. Underwood. and M. Boyars. New York: Kampmann, 1988 ; 'The Seven Solitudes of Lorsa Lopez'. Trans. Clive Wake. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1995 ; 'An Open Letter To Africans' c/o The Punic One-Party State, an essay. Trans. John Conteh-Morgran. Published in Tejumola Olaniyan and Ato Quayson's African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory. Malden: Blackwell Publishers, 1990 ;
Published by Revue Noire publisher (in French) : 'L’Autre monde, écrits inédits' (1997), 'L’Atelier de Sony Labou Tansi, correspondances, poésie, roman inédits' (2005)
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Infernal Letter to Monsieur Arthur Rimbaud
["The Infernal Letter to Arthur Rimbaud" was written for the commemoration of the centenary of Rimbaud's death and was published in RN 08 in December 1992, original poem unpublished text in French. The actor - director Jean-Paul Delore offers on stage an astonishing reading of this text.]
[This poem 'Infernal Letter' can be considered as an exchange of ideas with his compatriot Tchicaya U Tam’si and his writing ’La Source’ published in RN 05 in June 1992]
Monsieur Rimbaud
I'm telling you straight
to the soul
This world is dead
And France too
I'll tell you again
Straight to the pants
This world will soon finish
dying
And you will never again go
to Abyssinia or Asia
dealing in absinthe
in ideas high as weeds
in good moods
in down and out enthusiasms
in clusters of weapons
Home-made Scuds and mean
frail ambiences – never again
No Monsieur Arthur
You will never go again
To sell the peacock's feather
And the boss's butt
Not to the blue misted desert of Nubia
Nor to the scorching confines
of the Niamand-Garam falls
Animals battered with water
wind
and money will no longer look at you
from the back of their brains –
It's finished Monsieur Arthur
Unless arteries disgorge
You will no longer leap over
all the trees of knowledge
intimately linked
to profit –
Monsieur Arthur I am telling you
from Africa
between the French green berets
and black Italians all over the place
You will no longer sell
a hundred thousand gnashing of teeth
a hundred thousand lots
drawn to decide the destiny of a Verlaine
With a blood-red weapon maintaining
law and order included –
Now that sky-blue is the color Humanity wears
You will no longer walk around
in Charleville
or in Charleroi
or at Charles de Gaulle airport
except cornered
between a neighing Journiac
and a Genet done up to the nines
farting with white fear
in a France let loose
in central Cow-boyonia
and where the chilly-willies get to you in the eyes
in the brain
in the spleen
in the balls
in the dictionary ...
You yourself Monsieur Arthur
Academician of the West Winds
You will no longer go elsewhere
than sucked up into the vacuum of the
bomb storm
And you will be summoned
to vacuum-clean
the Academy of Moral Science
Monsieur Arthur
Pity this France
that has never had anything greater
than reason and culture
France thrown to the winds
and which will not germinate
before the last century –
Monsieur Arthur
There is true pidgin in the trace of your soles
and crude fuel oil
and rainbow risings
and leonine blind drunks
and chaotic gain
and arab blood –
You can trust me
at the whisper of a new word
at the touch of the mangled flower of hope
in a leathery voice
as tough as Mount Cameroon –
All hopes being equal
Me Ham
napalm's heir
commander gassed
cheated body and soul
There are no more seasons
in Hell – no more reason
no more anything
except fat gain
greasy
harassing
odorless –
no more knowledge
no more blooming anguish
let's get rid of all the winds
to dance the dance
of the little white dancer
White from arse to soul
And it cheats
it lies
it hints at the edges
of the mind –
Eminences grises
and manuals à gogo
all balls placed
and well protected
the pouch oozes
It will sweat blood
Minus fifty
is the temperature
where poets are made
But France Monsieur Arthur opts for fire
Wood fire
Oh no –
A fire of dried tibias in Chad bathing
in a season with five Aprils
and it flows
and it will flow –
fire replaces reason
and hunger
and the disembarkation of legs
Maison Vianney full of scolarly scum
Mazeran
Bardey they're hard at it
behind the cavalcades
I'm telling you from Africa
cuckolded mother
we will no longer suffocate
now that the whole world
is no longer whole –
with a motherland
dying of a hundred plagues
The profession – even of squatting
is sold to death
for stones thrown
for lead shot
Tadjoura neighs
like an old white horse
the whiteness of swindlers
green anguish in tibia-land
bodies dressed in silk
naked soul
which has denuded intelligence
Monsieur Arthur
I swear to you
We will no longer travel
other than light.
Sony Labou Tansi, Brazzaville, February, 21 1991
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Juliet’s Testament
[extract from ’La résurrection rouge et blanche de Roméo et Juliette’ ('The Red and White Resurrection of Romeo and Juliet)' based on William Shakespeare
published in RN 01 in May 1991, original text written in French, translated by W. A. Caswell]
Dearest love, I drank your words and this draught will be my death because your flesh is riven to mine by the burning bonds which unite us, how could I breathe under the darkened sky in the face of a fallen sun. Your blood summons mine, your corpse claims mine – newly-wed for only a few hours we must bear our bodies before us towards the same fatal flower. I now unbutton this dress of life to meet and match the crystal-clear nakedness of your soul. How could I do otherwise – Romeo fractured sun flaring corpse I come to you in the robes I donned yesterday before God and the Holy Church. What other defiance must I wear how else could I preserve the paltry body I vowed to you. My love, the unchaste shall inherit a blighted sky, we shall be united in our common dream, read the same chapter in the book of death where the essence of our common measure and our common destiny is told.
Romeo sweetest corpse, my heart-ship journey's end, open your stillness, let me drink a new world from your faint lips, the passion which loves us together.(…)
Men of this earth, take your hubbub weave your webs of bitter dispute devour your death. Let those who are starved of intrigue grow fat to their hearts' content light other fires to burn other innocents make show of humanity trample soil burn eviscerate the fragile – alas, you never let me hate enough to hate you with – I go a virgin into the gaol of the love I have espoused – Romeo the time to seal my lips and I come to you… (silence)
Sony Labou Tansi
extract from ’La résurrection rouge et blanche de Roméo et Juliette’ (The Red and White Resurrection of Romeo and Juliet) based on William Shakespeare.
Published in French by Revue Acteurs-Auteurs no83, September ,Acte Sud.
Staging Sony Labou Tansi, sets and costumes Hélène Delprat.
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