Marie Vieux-Chauvet - Love, Anger, Madness

All notes are the author’s unless otherwise indicated. Marie Vieux-Chauvet writes in an elegant literary French, which she interrupts with colloquialisms, creolisms, and even English in an effort to create specific voices. The creolisms-that is, the use of Creole words such as morne or combite in French texts-are an homage to the indigeniste (nationalist) Haitian literary tradition and a departure from bovarysme , the imitation of French styles practiced by the earliest, generally mulatto, Haitian writers. At times she uses the creolisms as if they were idioms. For example, her peasants refer to themselves as nègres , a Creole word related to the Spanish word negro but which primarily means “men” or “people” and only secondarily means “black men” (nègre blanc is how one says “white man” in Creole).

MARIE VIEUX-CHAUVET (1916-73), a seminal voice of post -occupation Haiti, was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Her novels include Fille d’Haïti, La Danse sur le volcan, Fonds des nègres , and Les Rapaces .

ROSE-MYRIAM RÉJOUIS and VAL VINOKUR (assistant professors of literary studies at Eugene Lang College / the New School) have translated two novels by Patrick Chamoiseau, Solibo Magnificent and Texaco , the latter of which won the American Translators Association Galantière Prize for Best Book in 1998. Their translation of Love, Anger, Madness was supported by a Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.

[1]Tonton Mathurin: Tontón is a Creole world for uncle (trans.).

[2] houpland: tunic with a long skirt (trans).

[3] griffe: dark-skinned mixed-race person.

[4] grimelle: mixed-race person with light skin and nappy hair.

[5] clairin: alcohol made with sugarcane; similar to rum but less refined (trans).

[6] has: voodoo gods.

[7] petit-blanc: a white Creole too poor to own a large plantation.

[8]“you found yourself a woman, business is good!”: In the original, Mme Potiron uses Creole, “oil joindre femme affaire ou bon!”(trans.).

[9]grumpy owls : frisés , which the author footnotes as “owls, female” (trans.).

[10] halforts: handmade shoulder bags woven from fan palm fiber (trans.).

[11]black hill folk: In the original, the author uses a creolism, “les nègres des mornes,” without italics. Alomes is Creole for “mountains” and, by extension, the hill country (trans.).

[12] rastaquouères: flashy foreigners, slick upstarts (trans).

[13]cat’s-tongue tea: a calming herbal tea brewed from borage (trans).

[14]old Grandet: In Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet, the miserly father of the heroine (trans).

[15]Antiphelic Milk: skin lotion used to fade freckles, but used here as a skin lightener (trans).

[16]Messalina’s ardor: the Roman empress Messalina, c. 22-48, wife of Claudius and a reputed nymphomaniac (trans).

[17]President Leconte: General Cincinnatus Leconte, president of Haiti from 1911 to 1912 (trans).

[18]“little soldiers”: Petits soldats was the name given to the members of the lower class who made up the Haitian police of the time.

[19]Sophie Fichini: the abused heroine of Les Petites Filles modèles , a novel for children published by the Comtesse de Ségur in 1858 (trans).

[20]Tancrède Auguste: president of Haiti, 1912-13 (trans).

[21]Cacos: revolutionaries from the north.

[22]Vilbrun Guillaume Sam: Leader of the revolt that brought President Leconte to power, Sam served as president of Haiti briefly in 1915, before his execution of political prisoners led to his murder by an angry mob, which precipitated the U.S. occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934 (trans).

[23]President Dartiguenave’s government: Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave, president of Haiti from 1915 to 1922 (trans).

[24]Marchaterre Massacre: On December 6, 1929, U.S. Marines opened fire on unarmed peasants during a peaceful demonstration (trans).

[25]Salammbô: priestess of ancient Carthage, the title character of an 1862 novel by Gustave Flaubert (trans).

[26]Emma Bovary: central character in Gustave Flaubert’s 1856 novel Madame Bovary , whose intensely romantic notions lead to her adultery and suicide (trans).

[27]poisoned rat: Haitian expression meaning miserable and burning up inside.

[28]Lysius Salomon’s rule: president of Haiti, 1879-88.

[29] loas: See note 6 on p. 375.

[30]fifty gourdes: One gourde = $0.20, according to the author; this was true when Haitian currency was pegged to the U.S. dollar (1913-89) (trans.).

[31]Armand Duval: In La Dame aux camélias, the 1848 novel (later adapted into a play) by Alexandre Dumas fils, Duval is the penniless lover of the dying heroine (trans).

[32]merengue: Haitian national dance.

[33] clairin: See note 5 on p. 375.

[34] tafia: cheap rum distilled from molasses and refuse sugar (trans.).

[35]Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani: according to Mark 15:34, Jesus Christ’s words on the cross, meaning “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (trans.).

[36]Simple Simon: “Gros-Jean comme devan” : an old expression referring to Gros Jean, a dumb sucker forever tricked and abused, featured in La Fontaine’s fables and in Rabelais.

[37]Diderot: from Diderot’s satirical philosophical dialogue Rameau’s Nephew , written in 1762, in which the title character argues that there is no such thing as virtue (trans.).

[38]Dessalines! Pétion! Toussaint! Christophe!: heroes of Haiti independence. Jean-Jacques Dessalines (c. 1758-1806) was one of the leaders of the 1791 slave revolt; he became emperor of Haiti in 1804, but was assassinated in a coup by Pétion and Christophe. Alexandre Sabès Pétion (1770-1818) was the mulatto son of a wealthy French colonist, who served as president of an independent republic in southern Haiti from 1807 to 1818. Toussaint Louverture (c. 1743-1803) was a former slave who led the 1791 rebellion and became the effective ruler of Haiti by 1797; when Napoleon Bonaparte sent an expedition to reconquer Haiti, Toussaint was arrested, and he died in a French prison. Henri Christophe (1767-1820) was a former slave and one of Toussaint’s lieutenants; after the assassination of Dessalines he became president of northern Haiti in 1807 and king in 1811 (trans.).

[39]Legba: the preeminent god in voodoo practice; the father of all the gods.

[40] marassas dishes: double clay vessels used during voodoo ceremonies or in household shrines. Marassas is the Creole word for twins, who are believed to have special powers in voodoo practice (trans.).

[41]piastre: one gourde (see note 3 on p. 377) (trans.) .

[42]studded whips: Both lanières ferrées (studded whips) and rigoises (stiff cowhide whips) were used on slaves in Haiti; the latter are also still used on restaveks or unpaid child servants (trans.).

[43] coco-macaques: peasant clubs or bludgeons (trans.).

[44] Iambi: conch shell used as a horn.