Eftersom förra fredagen ägnades åt 1930-talets bluesmusik passar det väl bra att följa upp med bluespoem från samma tidsperiod.
***
Jag börjar med the Man himself, Langston Hughes. Alla som vill ha ett hum om bluesens stämningar måste uppleva hans verk. Jag gillar hans raka, uppstudsiga knockout-attityd.
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| Langston Hughes (1902-1967) |
Note on commercial theatre, by Langston Hughes
(From Blues poems. Selected and edited by Kevin Young. New York : Knopf, 2003.)
You've taken my blues and gone —
You sing 'em on Broadway
And you sing 'em in Hollywood Bowl,
And you mixed 'em up with symphonies
And you fixed 'em
So they don't sound like me.
Yep, you done taken my blues and gone.
You also took my spirituals and gone.
You put me in Macbeth and Carmen Jones
And all kinds of Swing Mikados
And in everything but what's about me —
But someday somebody'll
Stand up and talk about me,
And write about me —
Black and beautiful —
And sing about me,
And put on plays about me!
I reckon it'll be
Me myself!
Yes, it'll be me.
***
Ett besök i minnenas allé.
"Nancy Cunard (1896-1965) var ättling till rederiet Cunard, men kom att revoltera mot sin förmögna familj, och föra en kamp mot konventionerna. Hon började med att kasta sig ut i Londons societet 1914, i början av första världskriget, med utropet : ”sprit, cynism och obegränsad promiskuitet”. Men med åren kom Nancy Cunard att aktivt kämpa mot sociala orättvisor och rasism. Hon skaffade egen tryckpress och publicerade 1934 en banbrytande bok om svart kultur, Negro. Hon var även den första att publicera den blivande Nobelpristagaren i litteratur, Samuel Beckett, som prisade hennes ”mod och kraft”. Författaren Pablo Neruda, en annan Nobelpristagare i litteratur som hon stöttade, hyllade hennes ”underbara himmelsblå ögon”."
Citat ur "Nancy Cunard – rik arvtagerska, konstnärlig musa, politisk aktivist och stilförebild", Sveriges Radio, 2008.
*
Memory blues, by Nancy Cunard
(From Blues poems. Selected and edited by Kevin Young. New York : Knopf, 2003.)
Back again between the odds and ends -
Back again between the odds and ends -
What once was gay's now sad,
What was unknown's now friends.
Each capital's not more than one café
Wherein you lose
yourself in what you have and have had . . .
Why worry choose?
The waiter waits, he'll wail all night -
And when you're tight he'll set you right
Back in tomorrow - or even yesterday . . .
Time plays the piper but what do we pay?
O Bœuf-sur-le-Toit, you had one song -
But when I look in the mirrors it all goes wrong -
Memory blues - and only back today!
I'm a miserable travelin' man.
***
Två av de största kvinnliga afroamerikanska författarna är Gwendolyn Brooks och Maya Angelou. Det finns naturligtvis flera. Jag tycker det är sorgligt att engelskundervisningen i svenska gymnasieskolor på sin höjd nämner Toni Morrison, nobelpristagerskan.
Gwendolyn Brooks tilldelades Pulitzerpriset för poesi 1950 och blev därmed den första afroamerikanen att ta emot priset.
Queen of the blues (extract), Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)
(From Blues poems. Selected and edited by Kevin Young. New York : Knopf, 2003.)
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| Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981) |
Mame was singing
At the Midnight Club.
And the place was red
With blues.
She could shake her body
Across the floor.
For what did she have
To lose?
She put her mama
Under the ground
Two years ago.
(Was it three?)
She covered that grave
With roses and tears.
(A handsome thing
To see.)
She did'nt have any
Legal pa
To glare at her,
To shame
Her off the floor
Of the Midnight Club.
Poor Mame.
She didn't have any
Big brother
To shout
"No sister of mine! . . ."
She didn't have any
Small brother
To think she was everything
Fine.
She didn't have any
Baby girl
With velvet
Pop-open eyes.
She didn't have any
Sonny boy
To tell sweet
Sonny boy lies.
"Show me a man
What will love me
Till I die.
Now show me a man
What will love me
Till I die.
Can't find no such a man
No matter how hard
You try.
(...)
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