BLACK WOMAN

Written by Cheikh Tidiane Gaye

Translated from the Italian by Bellesia Contuzzi and Victoria Offredi Poletto

Narrated by Bill Wolak

Senegal

Black woman

I offer my hands to the spirits

and I give you the sacred verses,

In your ebony color I feel your beauty, athlete’s legs,

the caress of your smile, the eternal joy of your forehead

Your scent is my shadow

Your hands my path,

I dreamed,

your hands were holding the corners of the world

in your palms were the universe and the life of men.

I dreamed,

your tongue was cooling the scorching earth

your sweat, freshness

that will build the anthill

the true eternal nest.

I probed with my eyes your purity.

Here I sit on the beach of happiness

offering you the caresses of midnight.

Black woman in the full clear moonlight

Perfume of the savannah,

here I stand, still at your shores,

remembering the clear gaze of your heart

your caresses,

the roots of love.

 

(Excerpt from Il canto del Djiali. Edizioni dell’arco, 2007 and Kanaga Edizioni, 2018)

Italian by choice, Cheikh Tidiane Gaye was born in 1971 in Senegal. A poet, philosopher, and writer, he is a member of Swiss Italian & Reto-Romansh PEN Centre. Writing has always been his secret passion that blossomed in the Italian environment and language. He distinguished himself in many fields, mainly as a poet and novelist. Some of his works have been included in university programs in Italy. He has won important literary awards and contributes to the Italian cultural scene with his talks, readings, and poetic performances that are a testament to his consistent participation in the life of his adopted country. Recently, he was honored in Craiova, Romania, for his cultural commitment and the literary quality of his poems. He is founding president of the Leopold Sedar Senghor International Poetry Prize and is the first African to translate Senghor’s poems into Italian.

Giovanna Bellesia Contuzzi (Professor Emerita) and Victoria Offredi Poletto (Senior Lecturer Emerita) have taught and collaborated in the Department of Italian Studies at Smith College since 1990. They are committed to bringing the voices of migrant and second-generation writers to the English-speaking world.  Together they have translated many short stories from Italian into English as well as five books books: Genevieve Makaping’s Reversing the Gaze: What if the Other Were You? and Adrian N. Braviâ’s My Language is a Jealous Lover (both forthcoming Rutgers University Press, 2023); Gabriella Ghermandiâ’s Regina di fiori e di perle and Cristina Ali Farahâ’s Little Mother (both with Indiana University Press, 2015 and 2007); and Dacia Marainiâ’s Stowaway on Board (Bordighera Press, 2000).