Maya Angelou

[Platinum]

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou, de son vrai nom Marguerite Johnson, née le 4 avril 1928 à Saint-Louis, Missouri, et morte le 28 mai 2014 (à 86 ans) dans sa maison de Winston-Salem, Caroline du Nord, est une poétesse, écrivain, actrice et militante Afro-Américaine. Figure importante du mouvement américain pour les droits civiques, elle est devenue une figure emblématique de la vie artistique et politique aux États-Unis où ses livres sont au programme des écoles.

[Platinum]

Woman Work


I've got the children to tend
The clothes to mend (Rapiécer)
The floor to mop
The food to shop
Then the chicken to fry
The baby to dry
I got company to feed
The garden to weed
I've got shirts to press
The tots to dress petits enfants

The can to be cut
I gotta clean up this hut
Then see about the sick
And the cotton to pick.
Shine on me, sunshine
Rain on me, rain
Fall softly, dewdrops
And cool my brow again.
Storm, blow me from here
With your fiercest wind
Let me float across the sky
'Til I can rest again.
Fall gently, snowflakes
Cover me with white
Cold icy kisses and
Let me rest tonight.
Sun, rain, curving sky
Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone
Star shine, moon glow
You're all that I can call my own.




Maya Angelou

[Platinum]

When You Come

When You Come




When you come to me, unbidden, ( without being asked to)
Beckoning me ( to ask someone to come towards you)
To long-ago rooms,
Where memories lie.
Offering me, as to a child, an attic,
Gatherings of days too few.
Baubles of stolen kisses. ( colored ball )
Trinkets of borrowed loves. ( a small piece of decoration : a jewelry)
Trunks of secret words, (tronc)

I CRY.






Maya Angelou

[Platinum]

Touched by an Angel

Touched by an Angel

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness ( spin around)
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear ( hit away)
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity (to deprive of)
In the flush of love's light (a sudden strong feeling)
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.


Maya Angelou


.

[Platinum]

They Went Home





They went home and told their wives,
that never once in all their lives,
had they known a girl like me,
But... They went home.
They said my house was licking clean,
no word I spoke was ever mean,
I had an air of mystery,
But... They went home.
My praises were on all men's lips,
they liked my smile, my wit, my hips, ( ability to make people laugh)
they'd spend one night, or two or three.
But...

Maya Angelou

[Platinum]

A Conceit

A Conceit ( conception, illusion or arrogance ?)


Give me your hand

Make room for me
to lead and follow
you
beyond this rage of poetry.

Let others have
the privacy of
touching words
and love of loss
of love.

For me
Give me your hand.



Maya Angelou

[Platinum]

Alone

Alone


Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees ( a female spirit who cries loudly to prevents that someone will die)
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.



Maya Angelou


.

[Platinum]

Awaking in New York

Awaking in New York

Curtains forcing their will
against the wind,
children sleep,
exchanging dreams with
seraphim. The city ( in Judaism and Christianity a celestial being having three pairs of wings.)
drags itself awake on ( pull )
subway straps; and ( sangle de bus )
I, an alarm, awake as a
rumor of war,
lie stretching into dawn,
unasked and unheeded. ( ignored )


Maya Angelou

[katiaret]

je m’élève

Vous pouvez me rabaisser pour l’histoire
Avec vos mensonges amers et tordus,
Vous pouvez me traîner dans la boue
Mais comme la poussière, je m’élève pourtant,

Mon insolence vous met-elle en colère?
Pourquoi vous drapez-vous de tristesse
De me voir marcher comme si j’avais des puits
De pétrole pompant dans ma salle à manger?

Comme de simples lunes et de simples soleils,
Avec la certitude des marées
Comme de simples espoirs jaillissants,
Je m’élève pourtant.

Voulez-vous me voir brisée?
La tête et les yeux baissés?
Les épaules tombantes comme des larmes.
Affaiblie par mes pleurs émouvants.

Es-ce mon dédain qui vous blesse?
Ne prenez-vous pas affreusement mal
De me voir rire comme si j’avais des mines
d’or creusant dans mon potager?

Vous pouvez m’abattre de vos paroles,
Me découper avec vos yeux,
Me tuer de toute votre haine,
Mais comme l’air, je m’élève pourtant.

Ma sensualité vous met-elle en colère?
Cela vous surprend-il vraiment
De me voir danser comme si j’avais des
Diamants, à la jointure de mes cuisses?

Hors des cabanes honteuses de l’histoire
Je m’élève
Surgissant d’un passé enraciné de douleur
Je m’élève
Je suis un océan noir, bondissant et large,
Jaillissant et gonflant je tiens dans la marée.
En laissant derrière moi des nuits de terreur et de peur
Je m’élève
Vers une aube merveilleusement claire
Je m’élève
Emportant les présents que mes ancêtres m’ont donnés,
Je suis le rêve et l’espérance de l’esclave.
Je m’élève
Je m’élève
Je m’élève

par Maya Angelou.

Traduit par Olivier Favier
Maya Angelou n'a cessé de poésie écrite au fil des ans. Dans cette vidéo, le professeur Angelou récite son poème, "Still I Rise"

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