Franketienne

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1/9

Kaselezo (a play)

Author(s): Franketinne and Paulette RichardsSource: Callaloo, Vol. 15, No. 3, Haitian Literature and Culture, Part 2 (Summer, 1992), pp.687-694Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2932001.

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2/9

KASELEZO*

(a play)

By Franketienne

First Scene:

"The Call"

BENITA

You're not sleeping, Mansya?

MANSYA

I

can't sleep, Benita. And yet,

I

went to bed

at

nightfall;

the

song

of the anolis and

the

serenade of

the crickets had

just begun.

BENITA

You look annoyed, Mansya.

What's

wrong?

MANSYA

I tossed and turned in my bed without being able to go to sleep. Just at the moment

when a

light sleep began to

stitch

my eyelids

with

a

silken

thread,

a

voice,

from

far

off called

me:

"Mansya,

don't

sleep

this

night,

I

beg you.

Your

child is in trouble. Don't

leave me abandoned in the abyss.

If

sleep carries you

off,

I

will disappear into

the

storm.

Don't

leave

your

child to drown in the

pit.

Don't leave

me

to

sink into the

baleful shadows."

That's what the

voice

said to

me,

Benita.

This voice

came from

very

far. It

was

a

beautiful woman's voice

that

wept

blood.

BENITA

During

that

time,

I

was sleeping. And

in

the middle of

an

old

macabre dream.

I

saw

myself chained from head to toe on a swing-door. Next I was tied up with catgut. As

I

began to suffocate, I felt a hand on my shoulder, shaking me; and

I

heard distinctly

a

beautiful woman's voice

saying: "Benita

Get

up quickly

Go join Mansya.

The

mapou

is

losing its leaves; the seagrape is losing its branches; the shade trees are losing

all

their

boughs

because

of

the bad winds.

Get up, Benita.

The gods are calling you."

MANSYA

Yes,

Benita,

my child, they spoke to me also. They need me. They need you. They

need

us.

*This French version of Kaselezowas first published by De'rives,53/54 (1987), 125-62. The translation

is published by permissionof the author.

Callaloo15.3

(1992)

687-694

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3/9

L___ _ __

_CALLALOO

BENITA

The night is long.

MANSYA

The night has stretched out to

its full length on the belly of the earth.

BENITA

The sharp pain convulses on the belly of life.

MANSYA

It is true, the entrails of life are

stuck in muck. The night is long. It is at night that pain

sharpens itself to kill the living. But it is also at

night

that

you

can

sniff the colors of

the day. Prepare the lampes-marassas.

BENITA

The lamps are lit.

MANSYA

Prepare the marassas-jugs to

refresh the boiling entrails of the earth. The

Iwas

are

angry.

Unbelievers must

not

cross the sacred

brazier, nor stretch their arms to catch

the lightning. The weak cannot touch the thunder in the tempest.

Prepare yourself,

Benita. The woman

is

coming.

She

is

coming from

far

away. She moves forwardpain-

fully. She

has

crossed

several

rivers;

she

has climbed

several

hills. She is almost lame.

I do not think she will be able to stand up.

BENITA

I've

had a

lump

in

my throat for three

days.

MANSYA

The

days go by

without

resembling

each other.

Each

season

brings

its

color.

BENITA

Will

tomorrow bring

misfortune

to

your

children?

MANSYA

Even if

misfortune swoops down on

the

living

we must not draw

back.

AMONISE

Honor-Respect

with all

my excuses, mother, since

I

cannot kneel

before

you.

My belly

is

a

bomb about to

explode. My

belly

is

heavy.

MANSYA

Amonise, my child, why have

you

waited so

long

to see me?

AMONISE

A

tentacle creeper shackles my

feet.

I am

dragging

an

enormous

burden.

688



4/9

L_____CALLALOO

MANSYA

It is not reasonable

to have let this

trouble overwhelm you. I

have been waiting

a

long

time for you to come. Sit down.

AMONISE

Misfortune

fell

on me

crosswise.

I

have been

everywhere

without

finding any

solace.

MANSYA

You set

up your bed

in a bad draft.

The spine of

the

rainbow is

twisted;

its vertebrae

were dislocated

dancing

the

yanvalouof

misery.

The

carcasses of

the

living

Christians

were battered. The machine broke

down.

BENITA

The

wind of terror is blowing, the earth

is becoming

a

sewer.

AMONISE

Many

blisters

swell and burst on

my

whole

body.

MANSYA

You have wandered

everywhere,

naked, without defenses, without shame.

AMONISE

I

have been dragged

through the mud.

BENITA

There are sneaky

seers.

MANSYA

There

are lying seers.

BENITA

There are

Judas seers.

MANSYA

There are

honeyed seers.

AMONISE

But

all

of

them, indiscriminately, eat

me.

MANSYA

What

pushed

you to offer yourself

for free to the

point of losing your

last blossom?

Who asked

you

to

give your body

to

be broken into

pieces? Who incited

you to spread

your

thighs

to be

crushed?

Who advised

you to keep

giving

and

be torn

to

shreds?

Who told you to play the belle on the highroads to be disemboweled in the public

square?

Have

you

gone

mad?

689



5/9


6/9

_CALLALOO

L

BENITA

Open

your eyes.

MANSYA

You are

tied up in front

and behind, it's your

punishment.

AMONISE

Why

is it up to me to pay?

MANSYA

It's your

fate. Your misconduct

has done the

rest. You have been

the victim of a rape.

You

are paying

for the bastards

whom you served.

"If

only

I had

known," you always

say it too late.

AMONISE

What can you do for

me, mother?

BENITA

Purge yourself

of your

stains.

MANSYA

You

are not the only one

responsible. Sin

has several fathers

but only

one mother.

You are that mother who carriesthe cross.

AMONISE

All the fathers have abandoned

me

on

the pallet.

Where

have

they gone?

MANSYA

The guilty

ones, the wicked

ones, have hidden

themselves under

the

bed.

BENITA

You must light

candles,

pine knots, and lamps

to light your

way and chase

away the

evil

spirits.

MANSYA

Scandal falls

always

on some women

and nests in our bowels.

AMONISE

I

suffer too much.

MANSYA

All the ignoble sufferings, all the atrocious pains are for women. You carrythe proof

of

the ignominy of History.

691



7/9

_

CALLALOO

BENITA

Men are like rocks in the water, without pity for women who

parch in the sun.

MANSYA

Amonise my daughter, you have been pregnant for centuries.

A stream of villains has

spurted sweetly in your garden. They made love to you one afteranother, squeezing

your nipples

and

vomiting

between

your

breasts. And then

good bye.

AMONISE

What

fate have

I

been thrown for me to be here?

MANSYA

Obscure forces have braided around you an invisible net of cords, steel cables, and

barbed

wire to trap you

in a

lifetime pregnancy.

AMONISE

After all this time do you believe the little one is still alive in

my belly?

MANSYA

You can

be sure

he is there

very much alive but

he

is sleeping.

AMONISE

Is

there any hope?

MANSYA

I can't

guarantee anything

for

the

moment.

The child

is huddled

in the middle of an

entanglement

of

problems.

You suffer

for all of

us,

all

of

us who have turned our back

to

the earth,

all

of

us who have ceased to love this land.

BENITA

The devil cursed the earth. Seventy-seven times

a

day,

there are

women who

die in

childbirth.

AMONISE

What

do the

Iwas

say

about

it?

MANSYA

The

Iwas

are

unhappy,

because we

have

not watered our

land.

We

have

preferred

perilous

and

grotesque acrobatics

to the

point

of

losing

reason. We have

respected

neither the

word nor

the

heritage

of the ancestors. We do

nothing

but

destroy

without

asking ourselves questions. We keep moving with lowered heads on the cadavers of

innocents.

BENITA

Is the

whole planet bleeding?

692



8/9

_________ _

CALLALOO

MANSYA

The earth

is poisoned. Field Marshall

Death plays on a multicolored

keyboard from

the Turkishisles to Guinea.

BENITA

We are in the

heart of the

labyrinth.

Do

you

see a

way out?

MANSYA

The thugs

are already

sharpening their daggers. No

need for

a

judge.

BENITA

Where

can we

take

refuge?

MANSYA

There will be no shelter,

not even for dogs or cats. Death doesn't stand idle. Death

has become voracious,

arrogant.

AMONISE

In

these conditions, will I

ever give birth?

MANSYA

Your case is not easy. The

fetus is

cornered, shackled, plunged into a

heavy sleep. But

perhaps

all

is

not

lost.

BENITA

What

veve

must

one trace? What

Iwa

must

one invoke?

MANSYA

It

is up to us women to

defend life. It is up to us

women to exorcise

death.

AMONISE

Which

is

the

path

of

deliverance?

MANSYA

Get

up

and

go You are

only

at

the beginning of the

road.

At

each crossroads gather

a

stone of suffering to

remind you.

AMONISE

How

many crossroads will

I

encounter?

MANSYA

You will

inscribe them in

your heart.

AMONISE

How many

stones can

I

carry in addition

to this burden?

693



9/9

CALLALOO

__

___

_-

MANSYA

Stones are

numerous,

it's

true. But you must

carry

them.

As soon as you

know the

reason, it will be lighter.

AMONISE

What

must

I

do with it?

MANSYA

The earth has

already crumbled. She

has taken the

way of the sea. Only

the jagged

stones are

left grinning

at

us. Stone

curses. Stone adversities.

Stone calamities. Stone

shadows.

Stone maladies. Stone

cruelties. Stone distresses. Stone disasters.

BENITA

You will

put them in this sack.

MANSYA

You will carrythem

and throw them

away for

the

deliverance of us

all, the flayed, the

disemboweled,

the

bloodless,

the

famished, the

sacrificed,

the

dumbstruck,

the

per-

secuted,

the

shipwrecked.

AMONISE

Where

should

I

throw these stones?

MANSYA

No one can

answer. You alone will know when the

hour

of

deliverance sounds. Go

On that

day,

I

will be

with

you.

-Translated

by

PauletteRichards

694

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