by G E O R G E S C A S T E R A
translated from the Haitian Creole by A M A N D A P E R R Y
G E O R G E S C A S T E R A (1936–) was born in Port-au-
Prince, Haiti, and writes poetry in French, Haitian Cre-
ole, and Spanish. Castera is widely recognized as one of the
founders of modern Creole po-etry, combining oral rhythms
with unpredictable imagery and semantic ambiguity.
C R E O L E D R U MT A N B O U K R È Y O L
T A N B O U K R È Y O L
(Powèm pou 4 podyòl ak 2 wòch)
Tanbou mache disa m pa ka potem a kapote lSa m pa kasa m pa kam a ka
trakatap katap katrakatap katap ka
GOUDOU GOUDOU GOUDOU
Plop Plop Plop
Plop Plop PlopGen tanbouse ak zo mò pou bat yopou bri a sèk, rèkAprè ou bat vant yoPou fè yo pale
C R E O L E D R U M
(Poem for two mouths and two stones)
Drums marching saywhat I can’t carryI’ll overthrowWhat I can’twhat I can’twhen I can
trakatap katap kantrakatap katap kan
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE1
Plop Plop Plop
Plop Plop PlopThere are drumsyou beat with the bones of the deadfor a dry rough soundafter you beat their belliesto make them speak
1. The onomatopoetic goudou goudou would later be used to refer to the 2010 Haitian earthquake.
68 / G E O R G E S C A S T E R A
GOUDOU GOUDOU GOUDOU
Plop Plop PlopPou fè yo palepou nèg isit nèg lòtbòsispann lage chèy payanba sab lanmè
trakatap katap ka
m a ka sa m pa ka sa m pa ka ma ka pote lsa m pa kapote l
Tanbou m bat laTanbou m bat la w a karase l ak men ouw a karese l ak kò wMo kreyòl yo se tanbou mTanbou m bat la rèk Tanbou m bat la sèk
C R E O L E D R U M / 69
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE
Plop Plop PlopTo make them speakso men2 here men elsewherestop dropping straw chairson the sea’s sand
trakatap katap kan
when I canwhat I can’t what I can’tI’ll carrywhat I can’t overthrow
My drum beats thereMy drum beats there you caress it with your handyou caress it with your bodyThese creole words are my drum The drum I beat roughThe drum I beat dry
2. Nèg in the original, derived from the French nègre but usually a generic word for “man” in Haitian Creole. Blan, meanwhile, from the French blanc, or “white,” refers to foreigners of any race, including those of African descent.
70 / G E O R G E S C A S T E R A
Tanbou yo mache disan timoun san granmoundepi anwo jouk anba
San timoun, san granmountout lajè tout longètout lajè lan lari aklè
Se yon lame fizi atèki pa veye frontyèki pa veye lanmèSe yon lame san lonnèSe yon lame peyèsan peyik ap gaspiye yon divitialrafal katafal balpou fè moun pèSe yon lame pèpèlòt lame abiye dezabiye a klè.
Tambou mache disa m pa kapotew a ka pote lw a kapote lsi m pa ka pote lsa m pa kasa m pa ka
C R E O L E D R U M / 71
The drums marching sayblood of the young, blood of the oldfrom above to below
blood of the young, blood of the oldall widths all lengthsall seen spilt in streets
It’s an army that grounds their riflesthat doesn’t guard bordersthat doesn’t guard oceansIt’s an army without honorIt’s an army paidwithout patriotsthat’s wasting en massebullets in bursts and blaststo make people afraidIt’s an army with clothing madefor another army that dresses and undresses itin plain sight.
Drums marching saywhat I can’t overthrowyou can carryyou’ll overthrowif I can’t carrywhat I can’twhat I can’t
72 / G E O R G E S C A S T E R A
w a katrakatap katap ka
Gagòt fwonmi sou zo mò se sa nou wè
Nou wè yon lame an plizyè mòsoNou wè soufrans malereNan tout tobout atoufèNou wè testaman ekri pale mete laNou wè tout chèfak konsyans ti bebeTout chèf ki t ap di lanmòbon apeti manje byen toufonnentrakatap katap kapilonnen fouke anfrajele anvyoleyo tout ap kouriki abiyeki toutounilan yon bann batonis zo kaseje pete blidip blidaprantre la rete la
Plop Plop Plop
C R E O L E D R U M / 73
you cantrakatap katap kan
What we see is an ant nest beneath dead bones
We see an army in many piecesWe see needy suffering in all desperate depthsWe see testaments written spoken set asideWe see all leaderswith an infant’s awareness All leaders who were yelling deathbon appetit stuff yourselves fulltrakatap katap kanshelling, seizing, whipping, rapingthey are all runningthe clothedthe nakedin a tumult of batons and broken bonesburst eyes blidip blidapgo back there stay there
Plop Plop Plop
74 / G E O R G E S C A S T E R A
Tanbou pran tanbou baySa w pran se pa w
pa w
trakatap katap katrakatap katap ka
m a kasa m pa kasa m pa kam a kam a kapote l
—1995
C R E O L E D R U M / 75
Drums take drums giveWhat you take is for you
for you
trakatap katap kantrakatap katap kan
when I canwhat I can’twhat I can’twhen I canI’ll overthrow
—1995
76 / G E O R G E S C A S T E R A
translator’s note: “Tanbou
Kreyòl” appeared in Rèl in 1995, four
years after a military coup ousted
populist president Jean-Bertrand
Aristide. Though the U.S. would
facilitate Aristide’s return to power
in 1994, the coup remains widely
perceived by Haitians and Haitian
Americans as supported by the CIA,
part of a long history of American
intervention on the island and in the
hemisphere. The army that Cast-
era decries in “Tanbou Kreyòl” is
most immediately that of the coup
regime, but the critique has broader
relevance for a military organiza-
tion that, since its reestablishment
under the U.S. Occupation of 1916
to 1934, has only engaged in opera-
tions against its own people.
The poem combines its
attack on corruption and state vio-
lence with a call for mass mobili-
zation within Haiti and among the
diaspora. The crux of the poem is
its intensely onomatopoetic refrain,
which puns on ka pote, meaning
“to be able to bear, or to carry,” and
kapote, meaning “to overthrow.”
How much can one bear, Cast-
era asks, before the only option
is to overthrow the existing sys-
tem? With the same consonants
repeated in the line “trakatap katap
ka,” the refrain further invokes drum
beats, underlining the rich symbolic
weight of an instrument central
to both contemporary and histori-
cal Haitian life. The drum is omni-
present in contemporary Haitian
music as well as cultural and reli-
gious events, but it is also associ-
ated with resistance to slavery, as
drums were used by slaves to com-
municate between plantations and
organize revolts.
In this piece, Castera makes
excellent use of Creole’s capacity for
contraction, dropping articles, con-
junctions, and genitives to create a
work that is at once semantically
dense and sonically explosive. The
poem’s phonetic complexity makes
it especially challenging to translate,
with nearly every line marked by
internal rhyme, alliteration, or ono-
C R E O L E D R U M / 77
matopoeia. Despite less overlap in
vocabulary, English is perhaps better
suited than French to capture these
qualities thanks to its more flexible
grammatical structures.
For the translation, I made
choices based on sound wherever
possible without unduly distorting
the meaning. Thus, while the multi-
ple rhymes of a line like “gaspiye yon
divital/rafal katafal bal” cannot be
directly rendered in English, I trans-
lated it as “wasting en masse/bul-
lets in bursts and blasts,” combining
assonance, slant rhyme, and alliter-
ation to give an impression of the
original.
“Tanbou Kreyòl” has been
anthologized and translated into
French, while Rodney St-Éloi and
Maximilien Laroche argue in exten-
sive close readings that the poem
is a milestone in the development
of Creole poetry. This translation is
among the first to give Anglophone
readers access to Castera’s work.
—Amanda Perry
amanda perry is completing
a phd at New York University on
Caribbean literature in English,
French, and Spanish. Her current
project focuses on reframing the
Cuban Revolution as a Caribbean
event.