To the Unfair tyrant
It’s interesting to see an Aboul-Qacem Echebbi’s poem translated into English. No wonder that Wikipedia makes such an effort.
I have already translated the same poem into English and French one year and half ago, but I don’t have the skill of writing in poetic English.
In the poem “To the Unfair Tyrant”, the Tunisian young poet (1909-1934) denounces the crimes of the French colonialism, threatens the occupants and predicts a revolt, yet without mentioning them directly.
Here’s the text from Wikipedia
To the unfair tyrants…
To the lovers of the darkness…
To the enemies of life…
You’ve made fun of innocent people’s wounds; and your palm covered with their blood
You kept walking while you were deforming the charm of existence and growing seeds of sadness in their land
Wait, don’t let the spring, the clearness of the sky and the shine of the morning light fool you…
Because the darkness, the thunder rumble and the blowing of the wind are coming toward you from the horizon
Beware because there is a fire underneath the ash
Who grows thorns will reap wounds
You’ve taken off heads of people and the flowers of hope; and watered the cure of the sand with blood and tears until it was drunk
The blood’s river will take you away and you will be burned by the fiery storm.
June 4th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Great translation man, I didn’t knew that such poems could be even translated to any other language !
June 4th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
I can\’t judge the translation, but it reads well in English!
June 9th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
That is a beautiful poem, I was not familiar with this author. I guess we can thank the internet for allowing us to expand our knowledge continually. I personally love that.
However, I was wondering if you approve of the translation and if it conveys the same thoughts and feelings as the original version?
June 10th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
I agree about Internet, but the Web is made by people too, so let’s acknowledge people who gave information to us by sharing our knowledge with unknown users.
The translation is great, or at least, too much better than mine which was based on translating words rather than the meaning. Here’s my version
http://swobodin.fedora-tn.org/archives/94
June 13th, 2007 at 5:06 am
I must say, while the version above is more lyrical, your version is heartfelt and also conveys a glimpse of the tunisian language. I like it.
And I agree, the people use the technology and convey the art, yet I marvel that we can communicate.