Josaphat-Robert Large
Josaphat-Robert Large (born November 15, 1942 in Jérémie, Haïti) is a Haitian-American poet, novelist and art critic. His novel Les terres entourées de larmes [Shore surrounded with tears] won the prestigious Prix littéraire des Caraïbes (Caribbean literary Prize) in 2003. He is a member of " La Société des Gens de Lettres de France" (Society of French intellectuals), of the "Association des Écrivains de langue française" (Association of writers of French origin) and of the PEN Club America. Josaphat-Robert Large's work is becoming more and more important in the French literary world. The Society of French and francophone teachers of America has organized two colloquium on his literary production (specially his novels), one at Florida International University in 2001 and one at Fordham University in 2006.
Five poems written by Josaphat-Robert Large
Translated by the author with the help of Professor Thomas Spear
The country throws itself into the morning
Tossing the anchor of its miseries
Crumbs of dreams scatter in the air
As the sun lifts villages from the abyss of time
Huts troll dramatically in front of us
Trolling lights dance crazily along the shores
And at the tips of the waves
Only a pelican knits the carpet of space
Dew contours the pistil of a rose
We are here waiting for our ration of hours
Our share of minutes
Stuck on the horizon of our painful island
The yesterdays finally return
Those of our seasons of romances
Those with windows opening on the contours of our lives
A guitar keeps playing for the stars
Sidereal sparkling
Notes that invest the curves of space
Time restructures its moments
As the past slides around its sources
Words will illuminate the road of winds
With hundreds of fisherman lanterns
But where should we go on this island of smoke
The condensation of the fog is such
It slackens the rhythm of time
Heat keeps eating the space
In this upside down atmosphere
As existing unwinds depending on luck
A glow of spring reignites the deepness of our hopes
We cannot reorder our dreams
Neither reach the deepness of their sources
They emerge from nowhere
With currents of reflections
They spread
How can we account for their diversified wonders
Watching helplessly thousands of similes in reverse
Delighted metaphors balancing up and down
How can we reorder our dreams
When what remains around them
Are masses of shadow
Scraps of fog
Life here
Is sewn with threads of sorrow
Where suspicion and words intertwine
And listen
Observers of conduct
Judges of morality
From the top of your happiness
Have you ever seen children in rags of tears?
English 
Spanish
