5991: RE: a poem, regarding Ayisyen and photographers (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: WendyGG@aol.com


Hello all,
I wanted to share this poem .  It moves me deeply and seems appropriate to 
share given some of the recent postings.  I imagine many of you on the list 
are familiar with it.  If  anyone wants the original Kreyol, email me and 
i'll send it on.

I feel it to be an invitation to see anew.  To realize the awareness of those 
whose stories we tell, and begin to tell them differently.  I am all for 
telling the truth....but that is both the ugly and the beauty. For me, Haiti 
is a place of paradox, teaching us to hold the whole.  When I take/share 
photos and tell my stories.I strive to tell the whole story, the story of the 
strength and beauty that I've seen amidst the poverty and the hardship.  I 
look to show the dignity,  and I hold the words of this poet, who I believe 
speaks for many.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving,
Wendy
 
Pa pran pòtre m, touris          By  Felix Maurisso Le Roy

Tourist, don’t take my portrait
Don’t take my portrait tourist,
I’m too ugly,
I’m too dirty
I’m too skinny
Don’t take my portrait white/foreigner (blan),
Mister Eastman won’t be happy 
I’m too ugly
Your camera will break

I’m too dirty.
I’m too black.
Blan, your companion isn’t happy.
I’m too ugly,
I’ll explode your camera.
Don’t take my portrait, tourist.
Leave me in peace, blan.
 
Don’t take a picture of my donkey,
This donkey carries too much.
This donkey is too small.
This donkey doesn’t eat.
Don’t take a picture of my animal.
Tourist, don’t take a picture of this house.
My house is a straw house.
Don’t take a picture of my hut.
My hut is a house of earth.
The house is too broken. 

Go take pictures of the palace
go take a picture of the Bisantnè (a renovated area of PaP).

Don’t take a picture of my garden
I don’t have a plow
I don’t have a car/truck
I don’t have a tractor

Tourist, my feet are on the earth, 
My clothes are too torn.
I go, blacks don’t look at whites
but, the tourist looks at my hair.
Your camera isn’t accustomed to my hair (style) 
Your hair stylists aren’t accustomed  to my hair

Tourist don’t take my picture
You don’t understand my appearance
You don’t understand anything
of my affairs, tourist
‘gi mi fay sens"  (give me 5 cents)
and go make your way, tourist.