speak white
it’s so nice to hear you
talk about Paradise Lost
or the gracious, anonymous profile who trembles in Shakespeare’s sonnets
we are an uncultivated, stuttering people
but we’re not deaf to geniuses in other languages
speak with Milton’s, Byron’s, Shelley’s, Keats’s accent
speak white
and forgive us for making no reply
except the husky cries of our ancestors
and Émile Nelligan’s melancholy
speak white
speak of this and that
tell us about the Magna Carta
or the Lincoln Monument
or the Thames’s greyish charms
the Potomac’s pinkish waters
speak to us about your traditions
we’re a dull-minded people
but we can still appreciate
the importance of crumpets
or that of the Boston Tea Party
but when you really speak white
when you get down to brass tacks
and talk of standards of life
and of the Great Society
speak white a little louder then
raise your petty supervisor voices
we’re a little hard of hearing
we live too close to the machines
and can barely hear our breaths above the din
speak white and loud
so we’ll hear you
from Saint-Henri to Saint-Domingue
yes what an admirable language
to hire workers in
to give orders in
to fix the time of death at work
and the break that refreshes
and reinvigorates the dollar
speak white
tell us that God is a great big shot
and that we’re paid to trust him
speak white
tell us about productivity profits and percentages
speak white
it’s a rich language
when it’s time to buy
but when it’s time to sell
but when it’s time to sell until your soul is lost
but when it’s time to sell
speak white
big deal
but how to describe
the infiniteness of a day spent on picket lines
how to describe
the lives of a janitor-people
as we go back home at night
when the sun plummets over the back-alleys
how to tell you that the sun is setting yes
each day of our lives to the east of your empires
languages rife with swearwords are peerless
our slang is fairly dirty
stained with grease and oil
speak white
be at ease within your words
we’re a bitter people
yet let’s not reproach anyone
for exercising a monopoly
over the correctness of language
using Longfellow’s accent
and in Shakespeare’s sweet tongue
speak a French that is pure and atrociously white
like in Vietnam like in the Congo
speak an impeccable German
a yellow star between your teeth
speak Russian speak call to order speak repression
speak white
it’s a universal language
with its teargas words
its truncheon words
speak white
tell us again about Freedom and Democracy
we know that liberty is a black word
just like misery is black
just like the blood mixing with dust in the streets of Algiers or Little Rock
speak white
take turns doing it from Westminster to Washington
speak white like on Wall Street
white like in Watts
be civilized
and listen good when we speak about circumstances
when you lot politely ask us
how do you do
and you can hear us tell you
we’re doing all right
we’re doing fine
we
are not alone
we know
that we’re not alone
Translated from French by André Naffis-Sahely