translated by Tracey Cadet
Naked woman, black woman
Clothed with your colour which is life, with your shape which is beauty…
I grew up under your shadow; the softness of your hands blindfolded my eyes…
And now, in the heart of Summer and Noon ..,
I discover you, Promised Land, from the top of a high, calcined collar…
And your beauty strikes me in the heart like lightning of an eagle…
Naked woman, dark woman
Ripe fruit with firm flesh, dark ecstasies of black wine, mouth that makes my mouth sing
Savannah with pure horizons, savannah that trembles with the fervent caresses of the East Wind.
Sculpted tamtam, tense tamtam that rumbles under the fingers of the winner.
Your grave voice of contralto is the spiritual song of the Beloved …
Black woman, dark woman
Oil that no breath ruffles, calm oil on the flanks of the athlete, on the flanks of the princes of Mali
Gazelle with celestial ties, the pearls are stars on the night of your skin.
Delights of the games of the Spirit, the reflections of red gold on your glowing skin.
In the shadow of your hair, my distress is illuminated by the coming suns of your eyes.
Naked woman, black woman
I sing your passing beauty, the shape that I captured for eternity
Before jealous destiny reduces you to ashes to nourish the roots of life.
This translation by Tracey Cadet is the winner of the Richmond Lattimore Prize for Poetic Translation in 2020. The prize is awarded in memory of Professor Lattimore (1906-1984), distinguished poet and translator of classical literature, who taught Greek at Bryn Mawr from 1935 until 1971.
Tracey Cadet