Tanella Boni

trans. by Todd Fredson

MY PAtience lacks conviction

from There where it’s so bright in me

My patience lacks conviction
Me skinned alive
Shipped season to season
Day to day across the streets of the world
In the unnoticed corners

The experts forget to mention it

Another shooting
So close to me
I’m left speechless
This voice broken
Though not astonished

I’m not talking about mass deaths
The lives cut off for nothing
I’m talking about what I see right in front of me
The indelible imprint of my skin
But this isn’t really about me is it

I’m crossing a country sensitive
To the color of skin
I have the impression of living in the 19th century

Todd Fredson is the author of two poetry collections, Century Worm and The Crucifix-Blocks, and translator of two books by poet Josué Guébo, Think of Lampedusa and My country, tonight, as well as Tanella Boni’s collection, The future has an appointment with the dawn, which was a finalist for the 2019 Best Translated Book Award and 2019 National Translation Award. Fredson was a 2015-16 Fulbright Fellow to Côte d’Ivoire and a 2018 NEA Translation Fellow.

Tanella Boni is one of the most prominent figures in modern African literature. Born in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, she did her advanced studies in Toulouse, France and at the University of Paris (Paris-IV, Sorbonne), returning to Côte d'Ivoire as a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cocody-Abidjan (now the University of Félix Houphouët-Boigny). She served as President of the Writers' Association of Côte d'Ivoire from 1991 to 1997. During Côte d'Ivoire’s 2002-2007 civil war, Boni self-exiled to France when attention to her 2004 novel Matins de couvre-feu (Mornings after curfew) began to isolate her from others in the academic and literary communities, and to generate a sense of threat from the political party in power. The novel received the Ahmadou Kourouma Prize in 2005. In 2009 she won the Antonio Viccaro International Poetry Prize. In 2013 Boni returned to Abidjan. She divides her time between there and France. Her poetry collection, Là où il fait si clair en moi / There where it’s so bright in me, won the 2018 Prix Théophile Gautier from the French Academy.