Colour of Dawn (16 page)

The moon disappears behind opaque clouds. Dogs howl in the sudden darkness. Nothing is heard between the howls but the footsteps of the young runaway hurtling on his way, piercing the silence of the night. Lying low in their hovels, the people listen to the voice of death. A dreadful foreboding twists and turns the guts of the women, who wrap their arms around their bellies to stop themselves crying. Dreams have deserted the stupefied eyes of the children. The men rub their chins over and over, deep in thought, or clear their throats to put a bold face on things.

And when the moon reappears to bathe carcases, hovels and trash once again in its light, a passage between the shabby houses disgorges two men. They move towards him, the first in a police uniform and the second in a beige shirt and jeans. As they hear from their hiding place the voice of the second shouting out an order to the man in uniform, Vanel and Ismona are doubtful at first, but there is no denying the evidence of their ears: it really is Jean-Baptiste. Ismona sticks her head out just at the moment when Jean-Baptiste steps back to indicate the direction in which Fignolé has run. Vanel reacts quickly. Pulling Ismona closer to him, he places his right hand firmly on her lips and grips her neck with his left hand to stop her from breaking into sobs and betraying their presence. Ismona trembles as if ridden by one of our wild spirits. You know, one of those spirits who help people survive the cruelty of men.

From a distance Fignolé calls out the name of Jean-Baptiste, insulting him. The man in uniform beside Jean-Baptiste extends his arm, takes aim and squeezes the trigger. The bullet hits the young runaway in his left thigh. Screaming with pain, he still has the strength to drag his leg for a few metres. Standing now in the white light of the moon, the man shoots a second time. This time Fignolé, breathless, is hit full in the face. The explosion propels him beyond pain. His head seems to be thrust into the ether. He staggers backwards from the violence of the impact. His legs are raised from the ground and he collapses on his back, his eyes and skin torn away.

Stretched out on the ground, his face is nothing more than a pulp of blood mixed with a whitish substance oozing from his skull. The blood forms a viscous puddle around his left ear. Only the heavy dreadlocks and the curve of his beard indicate the place where his face used to be. A corpse set down between grass and stone, Fignolé is a giant dead bird.

Time has stopped, the length and breadth of this distanced earth, wild in its night. Way beyond the crazily shaking treetops. Beyond the phantasmagorical flight of the clouds. As far as the furthest boundaries of all the lands that Fignolé will never see. Never.

From their new hiding-place, in a narrow passage between two houses, they can no longer see their friend. The echo of the explosion rebounded from the rock into Vanel and Ismona's heads. Ismona bites into Vanel's hand and hangs onto him to stop herself falling. Wracked with sobs, Vanel rocks her gently in his arms. An excess of fear causes Vanel's bowels and bladder to release in a single action and he feels himself soiling his trousers. The shame of it! Petrified, distraught, he and Ismona can do nothing for now but listen to the shockwave that echoes, echoes endlessly, blending with the howling of the dogs in the night. The certainty of the death of their friend resonates in their chests and they feel inside the full force of the violence and their turn so close at hand, so close…

The white, milky light of the moon continues, impassive, to enshroud the world.

Glossary

Agoué
: A water god in the vodou religion. A kind of Haitian Neptune who rules over the sea, its fauna and flora, and the boats which sail on it.Those who live from the sea's resources are also subject to him.

Ason
: A small gourd filled with small bones, decorated with the colours of the loas and used by the officiant in vodou ceremonies.

Bayahondes
: Thickets.

Blancs
: The generic Creole term for any foreigner, regardless of the colour of their skin. Since the recent United Nations interventions, the African soldiers and experts have also been called blancs.

Boko
: A term derived from the Fon word bokomo, which means a vodou priest but which, unlike the houngan, has a negative connotation.

Borlette
: From the Spanish borleta. A very popular lottery.

Boule Zin
: A ceremony during which a deceased person's spiritual powers are passed on.

Cachiman
: A fruit with pips and white flesh.

Chadèque
: Grapefruit.

Compas
: Traditional urban music from Haiti played in four-four time.

Dambala
: A serpent god who is often represented on murals with his spouse Aida Wèdo.

Démunis
: The name of a political party. The name literally means The Destitutes.

Erzulie Dantor
: An aspect of Erzulie who symbolises endurance and strength, unlike Fréda, who is coquettish.

Erzulie Fréda
: A divinity of love, beautiful, coquettish, sensual and extravagant. She is often compared to Aphrodite.

Galipote
: A sorcerer, wolf man.

Gayé pay
: A fashionable popular dance performed during the carnival.

Gourde
: Haitian currency.

Grimelle
: A black woman with very light skin and frizzy hair.

Kleren
: A first-distillation rum made from sugar cane.

Laloz
: A fashionable popular dance performed during the carnival.

Lambi
: A marine conch, the flesh of which is valued for its flavour and its alleged aphrodisiac qualities. It is also used as a horn in the peasant community. During the war of independence it was used to call together the insurgents.

Loa
: A divinity in the vodou religion, a collection of beliefs and rites of African origin which, closely amalgamated with Catholic practices, form the religion practised by the majority of the rural peasants and urban proletariat in Haiti.

Madame Sarah
: The name of a very noisy bird which was initially applied to peasant women who came to sell their wares in town and which is now extended to those who trade between Haiti and the rest of the Caribbean.

Mapou
: A sacred tree, home of spirits, with a wide trunk and deep roots, with a similar function to that of the baobab in Africa.

Merengue
: Traditional urban music inspired by Caribbean and Latin American rhythms.

Notre-Dame du Perpétuel Secours
: The virgin patron saint of Haiti.

Ogou
: A vodou divinity representing fire and combat, a warrior god who is also the blacksmith god in Benin.

Poto-mitan
: The central pillar of the vodou peristyle.

Ridden
: To be possessed by a vodou spirit, a loa.

Rigoise
: A whip made of ox nerves.

Tap-tap
: A mode of public transport.

Trese ruban
: A dance, inspired by Indian traditions, involving a number of people who hold long ribbons of different colours attached to a central wooden pole and dance around the pole weaving the ribbons as they go.

The quotation on page 102 translates as “The time to talk in signs”, a line by the Haitian poet Anthony Phelps.

The Translator

Alison Layland won the Translators' House/Wales Oxfam Cymru 2010 Translation Challenge with a translation of a short story by Yanick Lahens. Having graduated from Cambridge in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, Alison Layland is a translator from French, German and Welsh. She is a member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting, Society of Authors and an Associate of the Welsh Academi.

The Author

Yanick Lahens lives in Haiti. She was born in Port au Prince before moving to France where she was educated at the Sorbonne. Lahens returned to Haiti where she has taught in universities and developed a social contract project. The author of three novels and story collections, her writing focuses on themes such as everyday violence against women, the lives of young people and problems of living in the city.

One of Haiti's most prominent authors, Lahens dedicates a large part of her time to a foundation set up to train young Haitians in sustainable development.

The original French edition of
The Colour of Dawn
won RFO Award, Prix littéraire Richelieu de la Francophonie and Prix Millepages.Yanick Lahens is also the winner of the Leipzig Book Fair Literaturpreis.