A Franco Poet Graces National Poetry Month

By Louise Peloquin

In 1996, the Academy of American Poets declared April as National Poetry Month. For the 30th anniversary, we remember a great Franco-American poet of the 20th century – Normand C. Dubé.

Maine native Normand Camille Dubé (1932-1988) was a proud Franco-American, an educator, an academic, a curriculum creator, a cultural leader, a published writer, a friend. For detailed biographical information, consult:

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1186&context=findingaids

We celebrate April with a poem included in an article Normand wrote for a French academic journal whose advisory committee gathered renown university professors from France, Canada, Switzerland, and England. For the first time in its history, indeed, for the first time in France, a special issue was devoted to French-speaking enclaves in the United States. (1) Publication was in 1988, a short time before the poet’s passing.

Normand knew this would be his last appearance in print. Perhaps knowledge of the inevitable shaded his verses? The reader is the judge.

Franco-American culture and identity make up his music and the “mystical lily.”

LA MUSIQUE SUR LES EPAULES

Je jouerai ma guitare                                      Je jouerai la musique

Par les rues des grandes villes_                    D’un poème à la vie

Dans la fumée des bars                                   Écrit en vers classiques_

Où les jeunes garçons                                      Comme ceux qui vivent et meurent

Boivent la vie aux sons                                    Dans l’âme de mes soeurs

De leur printemps fébrile.                               Qui les auront écrite.

     Mes ballades parlent d’amour                            Puis, je laisserai ma guitare

     Nourri de ses complications;                              Entre les mains d’un parvenu,

     Comme au temps des troubadours,                   Au seuil d’un hall ou d’un bar,            

     Elles se chantent à répétition.                             Ayant joué les coins de rues.                              

Je jouerai par les halls                                           Lys mystique    

Les chansons oubliées                                           Au refrain que le coeur frôle_

Au fond de vieilles malles.                                    C’est ma musique

Les fantaisies du coeur                                          Que je porte sur les épaules.

Rajeunissent les valeurs

D’un folklore retrouvé.

     Mes chansons parlent toujours

     Deci-deça, de va et vient;

     Comme au temps de tous les jours

Elles parlent de tout et parlent de

rien.

THE MUSIC ON MY SHOULDERS (2)

I shall play my guitar                                I shall play the music

Through the big-city streets_                  Of a poem to life

In the smoke of bars.                                 Written in classical verses_

Where young men.                                     Like those which live and die

Drink life to the sound                               In the soul of my sisters

Of their feverish spring.                             Who will have written them.

My ballads speak of love                                          Then, I shall leave my guitar

Fed by its complications;                                         In the hands of a chancer,

Like at the time of the troubadours,                      At the threshold of a hall or a bar,

They are sung repeatedly.                                        Having played on street corners.

I shall play through the halls                           Mystical lily

The forgotten songs                                           Whose refrain the heart kisses_

At the bottom of old trunks.                             It is my music

The fantasies of the heart                                  Which I carry on my shoulders.

Rejuvenate the value

Of rediscovered folklore.

My songs always speak

Of this and that, of coming and going;

Like everyday times

They speak of everything and speak of

nothing.

****

1. Number 70 of Études de Linguistique Appliquée (Applied Linguistics Studies) is called Foyers Francophones aux États-Unis (French-Speaking Foyers or Centers in the United States). The preparation, coordination and editing of the April – June 1988 special issue was entrusted to Louise Peloquin. 13 articles by French heritage Americans from New England, Louisiana, the Midwest, and a contribution from a journalist at France’s daily newspaper LE MONDE, make up the issue.       ELA is a publication of DIDIER ÉRUDITION, 6 rue de la Sorbonne, 75005, Paris.       Louise Peloquin can provide the translation of Normand Dubé’s complete article should readers be interested in discovering his last poems as well as insights on his creative inspiration and work.
2. English version, respecting the original layout, punctuation and syntax, translated by Louise Peloquin,