Jacques Roumain (June 4, 1907 – August 18, 1944) was a Haitian writer, politician, and advocate of Marxism. He is considered one of the most prominent figures in Haitian literature. Although poorly known in the English-speaking world, Roumain has significant following in Europe, and is renowned in the Caribbean and Latin America. The great African-American poet, Langston Hughes, translated some of Roumain's greatest works, including Gouverneurs de la Rosée (Masters of the Dew). Although his life was short, Roumain managed to touch many aspects of Haitian life and culture.
Read more about Jacques Roumain: Life, Death and Legacy, Quotes, Selected Works
Famous quotes by jacques roumain:
“We sing the funeral, as goes the custom, with the hymn of the Dead. But Manuel, he chose a hymn for the living: the song of the coumbite, the song of the earth, of the water, the plants, of fellowship between peasants because he wanted, as I now understand it, that his death for you be the renewal of life.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)
“Misfortune is never invited. And it comes and sits at the table without permission and it eats, leaving nothing but bones.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)
“He touched the soil, caressing its grains between his fingers: ‘I am this: this earth here, and I have it in my blood. Look at my color; it seems as though the earth faded onto me and onto you too. This country belongs to the black man and each time others tried to take it away from us, we mowed down injustice with our machetes’.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)
“I don’t want to listen; your words sound like the truth but the truth is probably a sin.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)
“Oh sure, everyone goes back to the earth at some point, but life itself is a thread that is never broken, never lost. Do you know why? Because each man makes a knot in the thread during his lifetime: it is the work he has done and that’s what gives life to life in the long stretch of time: the usefulness of man on this earth.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)