Almost Dreams

by Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, Robert Ziller (Translator)

Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (1901-1937) of Madagascar, Africa's first modern poet - hailed as "a pure African surrealist" - is presented here in a fine translation by Robert Ziller, who was the first to translate entire texts by the great poet, who had previously only been available in English in small "selected poems" editions. A handsome, pocket size book, it includes Rabearivelo's "In Recognition of Paul Gauguin" as well as a number of often anthologized poems, such as "To Read", "Cactus", and "Flutists". Rabearivelo remains one of the most influential and enigmatic of twentieth century poets, this free verse collection is a beautiful masterpiece by a poet at the height of his powers. "These translations read beautifully." - Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Distinguished Professor at Harvard University, and American Book Award winner.

Genres: Poetry

70 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Jean Joseph Rabearivelo (4 March 1901/03 – 22 June 1937), born Joseph-Casimir Rabearivelo, is widely considered to be Africa's first modern poet and the greatest literary artist of Madagascar. Largely self-educated, he earned his living as a proofreader for a publishing concern. He wrote seven volumes of poetry in French, of which Near-Dreams (1934) and Translation of the Night (1935) are considered the most important. The mythical and surrealistic world created in his poems is intensely personal and dominated by visions of death, catastrophe, and alienation. Harassed by French authorities and addicted to drugs, he committed suicide. He is regarded as the father of modern literature in his native land.

Reviews

[leynes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels good to have another poetry collection of Rabearivelo’s under my belt. Just like with Traduit de la Nuit, this first read of Presque-Songes was just a simple read-through, not many annotations, not looking up words I don’t understand, not comparing the original to a translation etc. I just wanted to let the poetry speak for itself and meet it where I’m at.

I didn’t enjoy it as much as Traduit de la Nuit because Presque-Songes is broader in theme but therefore felt a little bit more all over the place. On top of that, I didn’t get lost in the language as easily and as dreamily as I did with Rabearivelo’s other poems. (But that might change once I do a proper read-through with annotations and a dictionary.)

I can’t wait to engage with these poems again in the future, and truly get their meaning. Rabearivelo’s work is so rich with Malagasy culture and his own socio-economic background, it’s impossible to get it as an outsider without further research!

À tous mes amis morts et vivants,
fils d’Orient et d’Occident.

Rabearivelo is today believed to be Africa’s first modernist poet, though that ought to be a claim that requires much more long, still-to-be-done wide excavations in African modernism. In any case, he was a key acknowledged influence on Senghor and the poets of Negritude.

According to Jacques Rabemanjara, Rabearivelo’s disciple, and Leonard Fox, Rabearivelo’s most extensive translator, Rabearivelo first published three books that showed a “mastery of language, [and an] extraordinary skill with French prosody,” but it was in the book from which “Les Trois Oiseaux” is taken, Presque-Songes (Near-Dreams) that he truly came into his own. By the poet’s notebook, these seem to have been written almost simultaneously in French and Malagasy, in facing columns, sometimes one first, sometimes the other.

Rabearivelo’s next book was called Traduit de la Nuit (Translations from the Night); and his work clearly shows us how so-called surrealism can emerge independently from a kind of translation, in his case, from the old songs and thinking of the Imerina kingdom.

The mythical world Rabearivelo creates in his poetry is an intensely personal one dominated by visions of death, catastrophe, and alienation, which are all mitigated only occasionally by hope of salvation or resurrection. The overall impression is one of a surrealistic other world in which natural objects such as birds, trees, stars, cows, and fish have human emotions and human figures seem cosmic or semidivine.

His stock has risen slowly, too slowly for my taste. For years it seemed like there wasn’t that much of him, but his Oeuvres complètes in two volumes appeared in 2012, showing him to be an extensive writer running into thousands of pages not just of poetry but plays and fiction too.

Rabearivelo also kept up an energetic correspondence with French writers, had kilos of books regularly shipped to his island to keep himself current, and longed to be admitted to the scenes he circled like a distant satellite. They say he committed suicide at the age of 37 after the death of his favourite daughter, and after his application to attend the 1937 Exposition Universelle in Paris was denied by the French government in favour of a group of Malagasy basket weavers.

The beauty of Rabearivelo’s language, his imagery that is deeply rooted in the natural world, and the yearning of a poet who felt like he didn’t belong, can all be seen in this collection in the poem “The Three Birds”:

The iron bird, the bird of steel
who after having lacerated the clouds of morning
would want to puncture the stars
beyond the day,
retreats, as if in remorse,
into an artificial cave.

The corporeal bird, the feathered bird,
who forces a tunnel through the wind
to get to the moon he’s seen in a dream
among the branches
falls with the night
into a labyrinth of leaves.

And the disembodied one—he
who ravishes the custodian of the skull
with a stammering song—
opens those echoing wings
moves to pacify space
never to return except once, as an immortal.

The symbolism of the first two birds seems more or less clear, it’s the last one that will keep you thinking. A part of me can’t help feeling the third bird is surely Rabearivelo himself, with his stammering song and his undeniable immortality—an immortality achieved through his poetry, “his song”.

[Bogi Takács]

A small poetry collection (slightly longer than a chapbook) by the early 20th century Malagasy poet Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, translated from the French. I wish this was a bilingual edition; alas, it's not.

I liked it! It had a strong ambience and interesting imagery. There's some really striking nature poetry too. I want to read more.

This is probably only of relevance to Hungarian readers, but I was reminded of the more surrealist work of Attila József, and even more strongly, the poetry of István Kormos. So if you like that kind of poetry (and I do!) then you'll like this one as well :)

I wasn't always convinced about the translation, I will have to pick up more of Rabearivelo's work in French. I see there is a different bi-(or rather multi-)lingual edition that also includes his later work in Malagasy, but it's out of print and going for $250. :(
_____
Source of the book: A relative ordered it to my address and allowed me to read it before sending it on :)

[John Andrianarisoa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Authentic. You enter an author as one enters a cathedral,... without a-priori, with deference and respect for the author's very life. Rabearivelo had a tumultuous journey on earth, to say the least. His work reflects well the unfinished development of his happiness. To this is added a certain form of ambivalence, mixed with an identity crisis and unfulfilled desires. He talks about happiness like no one could... Melancholy and sadness combine to give us a universe, a psychology, and a reality that only a literary genius can offer.

[Anetq · Rating 4 out of 5]

Digte fra Madagascar - i fransk tradition oprindeligt udgivet 1927-35, og for en stor dels vedkommende skrevet på fransk (de andre på Madagasy - i øvrigt et agglutinerende sprog :) )
Det er på sin vis helt klassisk (fransk) digtning a la Baudelaire med hjerte-smerte og blomster.
- men så er der ørkenhimmelen og palmerne, der vidner om at hans spleen ikke er spor parisisk trods stilen.

[fani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant