ÉDOUARD GLISSANT
La Lézarde
The Ripening
Plants of the Nearctic Realm
Ceiba / Fromager
(also called silk-cotton)
Number of times mentioned: 15
Latin name:
Ceiba pentandra
Region of origin: West Indies, Mexico, Central America, South America
Atamari, Ceiba Pentandra, July 17, 2007, Photograph, July 17,
2007, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ceiba_pentandra_0005.jpg.
Quotations:
"Voyez. Le fromager, dit-il..." (14)
"'There's the silk-cotton tree,' he said." (13)
***
"Entre la ville et les hauteurs, voici la route, gardée par le terrible fromager." (30)
"Between the town and the mountains ran the road, guarded by the terrible silk-cotton tree; in the other direction the monotonous plain stretched down to the whiteness of the south." (31)
***
"Mais le fromager ?" (60)
"What about the silk-cotton tree?" (59)
***
"L'homme caressait la bouteille, la femme s'appuyait doucement, Mycéa put compter la marmaille: quatre, dont les jambes maigres tressautaient, et leur ventre violacé poussait, et ils avaient oublié les merveilles douloureuses de leur enfance, à cause de cette jeune dame qui disait comme les autres: « le fromager »." (61)
"There were four of them, jumping about on rickety legs, with purple-streaked pot bellies, and they had forgotten the sorrowful wonders of their infancy in the presence of this young lady who spoke just like anyone else of the silk-cotton tree.'" (60)
***
"J'avais peur du fromager, je disais tout bas: Lomé, Lomé, ne me fais pas de mal." (61)
"I was afraid of the silk-cotton tree." (60)
***
"Et Thaël, comparant cette monotonie, ce pont plat, et l'usine, aux détours de sa première route, aux trois arbres qui en avaient marqué les étapes (flamboyant, prunier moubin, fromager: l'arbre de gloire, l'arbre des misères, l'arbre des contes — rouge, jaune pâle, gris lointain), confrontant cette banalité présente et la splendeur du souvenir, Thaël pensa qu'à la fin il avait quitté la légende, qu'il était entré, oui, dans les espaces ingrats du quotidien, qu'il allait apprendre non pas la démesure de la souffrance, mais en fin la rigueur des misères communes." (72)
"Comparing the monotony of this flat bridge and the buildings of the distillery with the landmarks of the earlier road, with the three trees which had marked the successive stages of his journey (the flamboyant, the plum, the silk-cotton; symbols of glory, abasement and legend in their red, yellow and gray); considering the dullness of the present scene and the splendor of the recent past, Thael came to the conclusion that he had left the realm of myth and entered the wasteland of the everyday, that he was about to learn not the boundlessness of suffering but the stifling confinement of commonplace misery." (70)
***
"Ils sont sous le fromager, maintenant." (166)
"They' ll be under the silk-cotton tree now!" (168)
***
"Il n'a rien à voir avec le fromager." (166)
"What' s he got to do with the silk-cotton tree ?" (168)
***
"Un effort absolu pour rejoindre le flamboyant, le fromager terrible, la barre resplendissante." (216)
"It was a supreme effort to reach the flamboyant and the terrifying silk-cotton tree, to go beyond the sand bar in the sea." (219)
***
"Mais attends de voir, après le fromager." (237)
"But wait till we' ve passed the silk cotton tree." (238)
***
"Ils arrivèrent bientôt sous le fromager." (237)
"Soon they came to the silk-cotton tree." (239)
***
"Qui a pris la femme dans le filet du fromager ?" (237)
"Who strangled the woman under the silk-cotton tree?" (239)
***
"A huit heures ou à minuit, le fromager est aussi beau." (238)
"Early in the morning or at midnight, the silk-cotton tree is equally beautiful." (239)
***
"Ecoute. J'ai passé avec toi sous le fromager, les ombres nous ont unis." (241)
"Listen to me. I went with you under the silk-cotton tree, and its shadows joined us together." (243)
***
"Et ce fut ainsi, oui, par la grâce horrible de ce cri de joie, que Valérie ne connut pas le tapis de fleurs rouges à l'entrée du jardin; et que, de même qu'elle n'avait pas vu le ciel au-dessus du fromager ni l'eau sous le prunier moubin, elle ne vit pas la terre noire au pied du flamboyant." (248)
"Just as she had been unable to detect the sky above the silk-cotton tree and the water around the plum, so now it was not given to her to see the red carpet covering the earth at the foot of the flamboyant." (250)
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 502, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1."
Coco plum / Icaque
Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Chrysobalanus icaco
Region of origin: West Indies, Mexico, Central America
Dick Culbert, Chrysobalanus Icaco, January 2, 2012, Photograph,
January 2, 2012,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chrysobalanus_icaco_(14565574976).jpg.
Quotations:
"Mais la route n'est pas visible, elle est comme noyée sous un flot de rames vertes, de houles (il y a des corossoliers, à flanc; des icaques par endroits — là où le sol est dégarni, où la terre ne tombe pas — et c'est une nappe de brun dans la mer verte), la route n'est qu'un filet de ciel entre deux abîmes." (150)
"But the road itself was not visible; it was submerged in a mass of green branches (at one side there were custard-apple trees, and, in some bare, flat places, coco plums, which made a splotch of brown among the green), so that it was like a ribbon of sky between two abysses." (151)
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 222, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Coquelicot
Number of times mentioned: 2
Latin name: Pavonia spinifex
Region of origin: West Indies, United States
Kenpei, Pavonia spinifex, 30 June 2007, Photograph, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pavonia_spinifex1.jpg.
Quotations:
"Cette véranda immense, dans l'ombre de la quelle le regard ne pouvait plonger. Cette aisance et cette quiétude. Les pieds de piment rouge et jaune, les coquelicots vifs, et toute la paisible blancheur des murs." (54)
"No eye would penetrate the shadowy recesses of the wide veranda, and he resented its luxurious, tranquil air, the red and yellow pepper roots and the bright poppies at the foot of the peaceful white walls." (53)
***
"Et ce soir-là, comme si elle savait qu'il était là, Valérie dépassa les coquelicots, elle arrivait (ramassant du cresson peut-être)." (55)
"Valérie went beyond the flower beds; she came nearer and nearer; perhaps she was picking cress." (54)
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 518, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Cress / Cresson
Number of times mentioned: 4
Latin name: Nasturtium officinale
Region of origin: Europe, Africa, Asia
Paul Venter, Nasturtium officinale, November 15, 2017, photograph, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nasturtium_officinale00.jpg.
Quotations:
"Il appelait ainsi (par réminiscence scolaire) une déclivité abritée entre des orangers aux fruits toujours verts, tapissée de cresson bleu et vouée au silence." (54)
"This was the name which in his schooldays he had given to a quiet and secluded slope sheltered by rows of orange trees — which bore perpetually green fruit — and carpeted with blue water cress." (53)
***
"Et ce soir-là, comme si elle savait qu'il était là, Valérie dépassa les coquelicots, elle arrivait (ramassant du cresson peut-être)." (55)
"Valérie went beyond the flower beds; she came nearer and nearer; perhaps she was picking cress." (54)
***
"Thaël et Valérie partirent vers les cressons [...]." (186)
"Thael and Valérie walked through the fields of cress." (188)
***
"Dans ce pays, au fond d'une baie, à l'écart de la mer, loin des passants, des cris, il y a une bande de terre. Tout vert tranquille. Des orangers. Du cresson." (202)
"At the end of an inlet, far from the clamor of cities and the tumult of the sea, imagine a narrow strip of tranquil land, green with water cress and shaded by orange trees." (204)
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 176, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Guava / Goyave
Number of times mentioned: 4
Latin name: Psidium guajava
Region of origin: West Indies, United States, Mexico, Central America, South America
Rajesh Danji, Guava bangalore, 17 December 2006, photograph, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guava_bangalore.jpg.
Quotations:
"Unfurling itself from the road like a sheet cast aside by a restless sleeper, the savanna stretches all the way to an agglomeration of guava trees." (12)
"A l'ouest, l'aplomb des bambous rejoignait les goyaves après mille cassures d'ombre; à l'est cependant, accourait un rideau de pluie comme un vol de fléchettes lancé sur la vallée." (13)
"On the west side, after an interval of variegated shade, stalwart bamboos succeeded the guavas, while from the east a curtain of rain approached, like a flight of arrows shot out over the valley." ( 12-13)
"Moulin-rivière-goyaves-pluie route-remblais-soleil-moulin-rivière-goyaves-pluie..." (13)
"Thael saw that the nearby slope of pale green and the dark patch formed by the guavas were separated by a narrow, brownish ribbon, which was the river." (12)
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 606, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Hog plum (yellow plum) /
Prunier moubin (prunier jaune)
Number of times mentioned: 12
Latin name: Spondias mombin
Region of origin: West Indies, United States, Mexico, Central America, South America
Filo gèn', Spondias mombin (leaves and fruits), 2 August 2017, photograph, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spondias_mombin_(Leaves_and_fruits).jpg.
Quotations:
"Soon he saw, spread like a canopy over the dam, the yellow plum tree which marked the boundary between the known and the unknown, a pendant to the bright crimson of the flamboyant above." (11)
"Et ramassant une prune jaune il la mangea comme par défi." (12)
"And so he picked up a plum and ate it, defiantly." (12)
"Et Thaël, comparant cette monotonie, ce pont plat, et l'usine, aux détours de sa première route, aux trois arbres qui en avaient marqué les étapes (flamboyant, prunier moubin, fromager: l'arbre de gloire, l'arbre des misères, l'arbre des contes — rouge, jaune pâle, gris lointain), confrontant cette banalité présente et la splendeur du souvenir, Thaël pensa qu'à la fin il avait quitté la légende, qu'il était entré, oui, dans les espaces ingrats du quotidien, qu'il allait apprendre non pas la démesure de la souffrance, mais en fin la rigueur des misères communes." (72)
"Comparing the monotony of this flat bridge and the buildings of the distillery with the landmarks of the earlier road, with the three trees which had marked the successive stages of his journey (the flamboyant, the plum, the silk-cotton; symbols of glory, abasement and legend in their red, yellow and gray); considering the dullness of the present scene and the splendor of the recent past, Thael came to the conclusion that he had left the realm of myth and entered the wasteland of the everyday, that he was about to learn not the boundlessness of suffering but the stifling confinement of commonplace misery." (70)
"Et puis la descente jusqu'au moubin." (237)
"After that the road winds down, down, to the yellow plum." (238)
"Ils purent cependant distinguer les prunes de moubin qui flottaient par petits groupes jaunes au milieu de la tracée du pont." (238)
"The dam was covered with a coating of scum and they could make out clusters of floating plums which had fallen from the yellow plum tree." (240)
"Thaël donna un grand coup dans cette écume de prunes; l'eau jaillit, il sembla qu'il avait réveillé toute la nuit. Quelque part alentour des crapauds sautèrent. Chaque flaque sur la savane était comme une mare. Sur la pente d'ouest, les bambous chantèrent." (238)
"Thael kicked the floating mass of plums and water spurted up from beneath them. It seemed as if this gesture had awakened the whole realm of night, for the surrounding pools of water came alive: frogs splashed, and on the hills to the west bamboos creaked and sang." (240)
"Quand je suis passé l'autre fois (mais que c'est loin!), j'ai mangé une prune. Je voulais provoquer le monde entier." (238-239)
"When I came this way before (how long ago it seems! I ate a plum!) I wanted to defy the world." (240)
"On fera des confitures de moubin." (239)
“We'll make plum jam." (240)
"Il y a tout ce qu'il faut, là-haut. Pas la peine de descendre pour des moubins." (239)
“ We have everything we need up in the mountains. We shan' t have to come down to gather plums. ” (240)
"Valérie ne vit donc sur le pont que les reflets des prunes." (240)
"Looking back, Valérie saw only the reflection of the plums on the water." (242)
"Mais elle ne vit pas l'eau noire sous le prunier moubin." (240)
"But she failed to see the blackness of the liquid around the plum tree." (242)
"Et ce fut ainsi, oui, par la grâce horrible de ce cri de joie, que Valérie ne connut pas le tapis de fleurs rouges à l'entrée du jardin; et que, de même qu'elle n'avait pas vu le ciel au-dessus du fromager ni l'eau sous le prunier moubin, elle ne vit pas la terre noire au pied du flamboyant." (248)
"Just as she had been unable to detect the sky above the silk-cotton tree and the water around the plum, so now it was not given to her to see the red carpet covering the earth at the foot of the flamboyant." (250)
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 30, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Mahogany / Acajou
Number of times mentioned: 3
Latin name: Swietenia mahagoni
Region of origin: Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, United States
J. M. Garg, Large-leaved Mahogany Swietenia macrophylla in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, 14 July 2007, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fruit_with_leaves_at_Branch_Canopy_I_IMG_8673.jpg.
Quotations:
"Yams and mahogany." (98)
"L'acajou, c'est solide." (100)
"Well, the mahogany was solid, anyhow." (98)
"Il y a un champ de paroka; odeur de feuille que l'on broie. Il y a un mahogani, épais et dur." (148)
"At one side there was a thick, tough mahogany tree, and beyond it a field of paroka which exuded an odor of mashed leaves." (149)
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 563, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Manchineel / Mancenillier
Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Hippomane mancinella
Region of origin: West Indies, Mexico, Central America, Venezuela
Dick Culbert, Hippomane mancinella, the Death Apple, 26 January 2008, photograph, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hippomane_mancinella,_the_Death_Apple_(11239909065).jpg.
Quotations:
"[...] 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)
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 339, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Palmiste
Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Andira inermis
Region of origin: West Indies, Mexico, Central America, South America
Quotations:
"L'homme dou cement recule, il sonde (sans connaître qu'en cette façon il agit, perdu là parmi les rêves qu'autour de lui ont levés les palmistes, les filaos peignés par le vent amer, les oiseaux siffleurs), il sonde dans la nuit qu'il enfante, et voici, un songe plus ardent que tous les rêves d'alentour lui vient, un fort relent de piments noirs, un battage torrentiel." (50)
"Man falls gradually back, groping, and failing to realize that in this way he is lost among the dreams spun around him by the palmettos and filaos combed by the bitter wind, and the whistling birds." (50)
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 398, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Red canna / Fleur rouge du balisier
Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Canna indica
Region of origin: West Indies, Mexico, Central America, South America
Lindley, Canna indica (C. discolor), 1829, Edwards's Botanical Register;
Consisting of Coloured Figures of Exotic Plants Cultivated in British Gardens; with their History and Mode of Treatment, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/
Canna_indica_%28C._discolor%29_Edwards%27s_Bot._Reg._15._1231._1829.jpg.
Quotations:
"Il retrouve les à-pics où l'oil exercé devine la fondrière, les touffes compactes avec le vide qui par-dessous guette, les couleurs ici plus continûment sombres, où soudain crie la fleur rouge du balisier." (87)
"He rediscovered the cliffs where only a practiced eye can detect, beyond the thick bushes, the treacherous leap below, the predominantly dark colors of the vegetation, interrupted by bright-red canna flowers." (85)
Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 209, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
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.
Basil / Albahaca
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Basil / Albahaca
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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).
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).