AMANDA GORMAN – That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious
LA POÉSIE IMPULSION D’ESPÉRANCE
AMANDA GORMAN, LUMIÈRE DE L’INVESTITURE
CHANTAL GUY LA PRESSE
Bien sûr, il y a eu Lady Gaga et Jennifer Lopez. Mais c’est une jeune poète de 22 ans, Amanda Gorman, qui a ébloui le monde mercredi lors de l’investiture du 46e président des États-Unis, et cela, en moins de six minutes.
Je ne sais pas si la poésie devrait fricoter avec le pouvoir, mais je sais que lorsque le pouvoir respecte la poésie, il y a de quoi être un peu rassuré. Je pensais à tort que c’était devenu une tradition lors de cette cérémonie, mais il n’y a eu en fait que six poètes invités lors de l’investiture d’un président, et cela, pour quatre présidents seulement, tous des démocrates : Robert Frost pour John Kennedy, Maya Angelou et Miller Williams pour Bill Clinton, Elizabeth Alexander et Richard Blanco pour Barack Obama… et Amanda Gorman pour Joe Biden.
Mais mercredi, non seulement Amanda Gorman est devenue le plus jeune poète à recevoir cet honneur, mais aussi elle a dû livrer son poème dans des circonstances inédites. Entourée de gens masqués, sans la foule habituelle en raison des menaces sanitaire et terroriste, mais devant les yeux de millions de téléspectateurs, dans un pays plus fracturé que jamais. Ce qu’elle a fait avec un panache incroyable et une grâce absolue.
Après quatre ans d’horreur, d’indécence et de mauvais goût sous Trump, tant de beauté et de dignité dans des circonstances aussi tendues avaient quelque chose de presque aveuglant. Je n’étais pas prête. C’est une autre tragédie de cette présidence : elle a fait de l’ombre à ce qu’il peut y avoir de beau.
J’ai écrit à Thomas, mon ami américain, professeur spécialisé dans les littératures francophones à New York, pour savoir s’il la connaissait, mais il ne l’avait pas remarquée avant que la future première dame, Jill Biden, qui l’avait déjà vue réciter, ne la choisisse pour l’investiture. « DOCTEURE Jill Biden », corrige-t-il, pour rappeler la formation de celle qui ne sera certainement pas une décoration à la Maison-Blanche.
Amanda Gorman, native de Los Angeles, élevée par une mère prof et cheffe de famille monoparentale, qui aurait souffert de bégaiement comme Joe Biden, est une artiste engagée pour qui la poésie est une arme radicale de changement social, première lauréate du concours National Youth Poet lorsqu’elle était étudiante à Harvard. Elle a publié un recueil en 2015, The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough, et publiera deux autres livres en 2021 qui vont certainement cartonner. Et elle aurait aussi dit en entrevue qu’elle veut se présenter à la présidence en 2036…
Devant les caméras, elle avait un port princier et annonçait ses couleurs : « Nous sommes les successeurs d’un pays et d’un temps/où une maigre fille noire/descendante d’esclaves et élevée par une mère seule/peut rêver de devenir présidente/et se retrouver à réciter pour l’un d’eux. » (C’est mon humble traduction spontanée, je vous invite fortement à aller lire le poème dans sa version originale.)
En récitant sans faillir son poème The Hill We Climb (La colline que nous gravissons), qu’elle a révisé et terminé dans l’urgence après l’assaut meurtrier contre le Capitole, elle avait pour mission d’aborder l’unité et l’espoir, mais elle n’a pas fait abstraction des maux graves qui affectent son pays, « une nation qui n’est pas brisée, mais qui n’est simplement pas terminée », a-t-elle dit.
« Nous avons vu une force qui préfère briser notre nation plutôt que de la partager/Qui veut détruire notre pays si cela signifie freiner la démocratie/Et cela a failli réussir/Mais si la démocratie peut périodiquement être freinée, elle ne peut jamais être définitivement vaincue. »
Vêtue d’un superbe manteau jaune qui s’harmonisait aux bijoux dorés dans sa chevelure traversée d’un bandeau rouge vif, ses mains papillotaient sur ses mots lancés dans le pur rythme du spoken word. Elle portait à sa main une bague montrant un oiseau en cage en hommage à Maya Angelou, qui a intitulé le premier tome de ses mémoires I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Je sais pourquoi chante l’oiseau en cage), l’une de ses inspirations, sachant ce qu’elle lui doit, elle qui se considère comme l’héritière des écrivains afro-américains, eux-mêmes héritiers de ceux qui ont brisé leurs chaînes. Ses bijoux lui avaient été offerts par Oprah Winfrey, qui a écrit après sa performance : « Je n’ai jamais été aussi fière de voir une autre jeune femme s’élever. Maya Angelou applaudit – et moi aussi. »
Et c’est par ces mots d’espoir, qui sont instantanément devenus des citations virales sur les réseaux sociaux en même temps qu’a explosé le nombre de ses abonnés, qu’elle a fini de nous couper le souffle : « Car il y a toujours de la lumière, si seulement nous sommes assez courageux pour la voir, si seulement nous sommes assez courageux pour l’incarner. » (For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.)
Mais sans les poètes comme Amanda Gorman, il serait peut-être impossible d’ouvrir les yeux. Car par sa seule présence mercredi, et par ses mots, elle a été cette lumière.
Ce texte provenant de La Presse+ est une copie en format web. Consultez-le gratuitement en version interactive dans l’application La Presse+.
ET VOICI LE POEME
President for all Americans
(CNN) Amanda Gorman, the nation’s first-ever youth poet laureate, read the following poem during the inauguration of President Joe Biden on January 20:
When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We’ve braved the belly of the beast
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn’t always just-ice
And yet the dawn is ours
before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished
We the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one
And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat
but because we will never again sow division
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid
If we’re to live up to our own time
Then victory won’t lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we’ve made
That is the promise to glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it’s the past we step into
and how we repair it
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation
rather than share it
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy
And this effort very nearly succeeded
But while democracy can be periodically delayed
it can never be permanently defeated
In this truth
in this faith we trust
For while we have our eyes on the future
history has its eyes on us
This is the era of just redemption
We feared at its inception
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
of such a terrifying hour
but within it we found the power
to author a new chapter
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves
So while once we asked,
how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert
How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was
but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free
We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation
Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children’s birthright
So let us leave behind a country
better than the one we were left with
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,
we will rise from the windswept northeast
where our forefathers first realized revolution
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,
we will rise from the sunbaked south
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
and every known nook of our nation and
every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it
(CNN) Amanda Gorman, the nation’s first-ever youth poet laureate, read the following poem during the inauguration of President Joe Biden on January 20.
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