—translated, from the Haitian Creole, by Danielle Legros Georges
That little box you see on the windowsill
is keeping my ashes
after my body’s been burned
I already told you
what death is
I’ll tell you one more time
death, well now, death
is like the time before I settled
in my mother’s belly.
Félix Morisseau-Leroy (1912—1998) was a prolific Haitian writer, educator, activist, and champion of the Haitian Creole language. Morisseau-Leroy is deeply admired and celebrated in the Haitian diaspora, Haiti, and elsewhere for the significant and courageous role he played in the promotion and recognition of Haitian Creole as a language of instruction and of literature. He was among the first important Haitian writers to write serious literary texts in Haitian Creole, which reflected and celebrated Haitian Creole cultural identity and concerns. Often referred to as the father of Haitian Creole literature, his literary influence can be seen in the existence of Creole-language texts written by contemporaries and a younger generation of Haitian writers.
Danielle Legros Georges is an Associate Professor in the Creative Arts in Learning Division of Lesley University; and a visiting faculty member of the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences, University of Massachusetts—Boston. She is the author of a book of poems Maroon (Curbstone Press, 2001). Recent poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in The Bill Moyers Journal (PBS Program), The Caribbean Writer’s Special Issue on Haiti, Consequence, and The Women’s Review of Books. She lives in Boston, and enjoys hiking in the nearby Blue Hills.
