ÉDOUARD GLISSANT


La Lézarde


          The Ripening





Plants of the Nearctic Realm


Sea grape / Raisinier


Number of times mentioned: 2
Latin name: Coccoloba uvifera
Region of origin: West Indies, Mexico, United States, South America


Hans Hillewaert, Coccoloba uvifera, 7 June 2006, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Coccoloba_uvifera.jpg.




Quotations:


"Mycéa est tranquille, se souvient à peine. Odeur fragile du sable et des raisiniers." (102)

"In her memory there lingered only the smell of the sand and the grapevine." (100)


***


"[...] marchant longtemps sur les feuilles sèches, au long du rivage qu'ils devinent, mais reculant vers l'intérieur des terres quand ils rencontrent un mancenillier aux branches torturées, avant-coureur des fresques de raisins de mer mêlées aux cocotiers et qui font à l'eau verte et bleue une parure de fruits." (144)

"Only when they came upon a manchineel tree with its tortuously twisted branches, forerunner of the mingled ephedra and coconuts which made a fruity garland overhanging the green and blue water did they veer momentarily back to the interior." (144) 
[Likely an erroneous translation, as ephedra refers to the Eurasian variety of sea-grape]




Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 774, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.









Image credits:

Tomás Sánchez, Autorretrato En Tarde Rosa, 1994, Acrylic on linen, 1994,
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/03/tomas-sanchez-landscape-paintings/.


Tomás Sánchez, Orilla y Cielo Gris, 1995, Acrylic on canvas, 1995,
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/03/tomas-sanchez-landscape-paintings/.


Text editions:


Édouard Glissant, La lézarde: roman (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1958).
Édouard Glissant, The Ripening, trans. Frances Frenaye (New York: G. Braziller, 1959).