If a great surrealist poet could live in Harlem in 1929 and fail to be moved by the legacy of the great surrealist philosopher, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, then I will believe that Garvey was guilty of mail-fraud. If you put ‘king’ and ‘Harlem’ into a title in August 1929 you can only be referring (however obliquely), to one person. The critical flock do not mention a real-life Jamaican in relation to Poeta en Nueva York. The line which most clearly, to me, links El rey de Harlem with the famous 1925 images of the Provisional President of a (surrealist) United States of Africa is this one:
'yu great king prisoner, hinna doorman-suit.'
De king hov Aarlem is, for me a complex, beyond-reality dramatisation of Garvey’s passion. If you think Uncle Firestone du Bois should be there; seek and thou shalt find. The author uses the second verse to set the scene. Hanisette is the sun in sun-and-shade/sol y sombra/anis-and-brandy; it is French, yellow and strong-drink/aguardiente. Las aldeas is the Spanish for the villages. In a French dictionary you will find les aléas/the hazards, which you can select or reject as a possible interpretation.
My faith in the author and respect for the author were enhanced by my experience of the poem. If Marcus Garvey is to be seen as a doorman then he must surely be the doorman at the doors of perception. I ear yu doan get in if yu kaan fe see de blak-star-dem.
De king hov Aarlem
Wit ha spoon
im did hout from crocodile-dem dair eye
han lick monkey-dem pon dair hass.
Wit ha spoon.
Fire fe long-time did sleep hinna flint-dem
han beetle-dem drunk pon hanisette
did forget de moss fe villages/hazards.
Dat hold man cova wit mushroom
im a gwan wair black-dem did wail
wile hit crack de spoon hov de king
han barrel-dem hov dirty-water did come.
Rose-dem runnin pon de ratchets
hov last-corner-dem hov de air
an pon eap-dem hov saffron
picknies did flat-out likkle squirrel
wit face-dem hall ot han vex.
Mus fe cross bridge-dem
han reach de black rumbling
so dat good-smell fe chest
lick hour temple wit hit raiment
hov ot pineapple.
Mus fe kill de blondie-higgler hov strong-drink,
to hall friend hov happle han sand;
han mus give wit ard-fist-dem
to likkle-jewee-ooman dat shake full-up-wit bubbles,
so dat de king hov Aarlem sing wit im multitude,
so dat crocodile-dem sleep hinna long lines
hunder de hasbestos hov de moon,
han so dat no-man doubt de hinfinite beauty
hov fedder-dustas, graters, copper pots han kitchin pans.
Chu, Aarlem! Chu, Aarlem! Chu, Aarlem!
Der his no hanxiety dat compare wit yu downpress reds,
yu shiverin blood hinna de dark heclipse,
yu garnet ruffness, deaf han dumb hinna de aff-lite,
yu great king prisoner, hinna doorman-suit.
+++
De nite did av ha crack han ivory-salamander-dem hall-stop.
Merica-gal-dem
wit baby han coin hinna de womb
han bwoy-dem did pass-hout pon de cross stretch-hout.
De har.
De har dem dat drink whisky fe silverware hat de volcanoes
han choke-bak morsel hov eart long a hice-mountain hov de bear.
+++
Dat nite de king hov Aarlem, wit han hunbrake-hable spoon,
im did hout from crocodile-dem dair eye
han lick monkey-dem pon dair hass.
Wit han hunbrake-hable spoon.
Blak-dem did wail hinna confusion
hamung humbrellas han sundowners hov gold,
pale-skin-dem did long-hout rubber, vex fe mek-wite dair body,
han de wind did mess-hup mirror
han bruk-up vein-dem hov dancers.
Blak. Blak. Blak. Blak-dem.
De blood have no way-hout hinna yu nite wit mout-hup.
Yu doan fe blush. Hangry blood hundernete de skin.
Hit live hinna de bak-bone hov de ratchet han hinna de bosom hov de country,
hunder claw han spike hov de eavenly moon hov de crab.
Blood dat seek-by ha thousan path floury death han hash hov boasting,
heavens stiff han slope-down were township hov planet-dem
mite scatter-habout beach-dem wit hall-wash-hup.
Slow-blood dat look wit de heye hov de bambu,
blood-mek-wit muscle-grass hall-wring-hout, sweetness fe tunnel.
Blood dat rust-hup de wind/halder hall-neglect hinna footprint
han wash-hout bat-dem fe window-glass.
Dis blood dat run, han will run
fe point-roof han flat-roof, fe hall-hover,
fe burn-hup clorofil hov blond-ooman-dem,
fe wine hat foot-hov-bed-dem, face de hunsleeping hov de wash-tings,
han mash-hup-hitself hinna fire hov tobacco han yellow fe low-dung.
Mus fe run!
run roun corner-dem han lock-yuself hinna de top-floor-dem,
fe sure de marrow fe forest gwan fe slip-trou crack
gwan fe put-on hall-you flesh de faint mark hov heclipse
han ha false sadness hov hold glove han kemical-rose.
+++
Hit trou de silence dat know all-tings
dat waiter-dem, cook-dem and dem dat mek-clean wit dem tongue
de cuts pon millionaire
dem seek de king hinna street hor hangle hov salt-fe-sea.
Ha sout-wind hov wood, sideways hinna de black mud,
spit pon bruk-up boat-dem han mek pin-cushion hinna shoulder-dem.
Ha sout-wind dat bring
teet, sun-flowa, alphabet
han ha battery from Volta wit wasp drown-dead.
Forgetting was represent wit three-drop hov hink pon ha single heye-glass.
Loving, wit ha lonely face hunseen by fruit-hov-flint.
Hinside hov bone han hinside hov flower did create habove-hov heaven
ha desert hov dry-hup stalk, not heven ha lonely rose.
Pon de leff, pon de right, hinna de Sout han hinna de Nort,
hit do rise-hup de wall dat dem kaan-fe-pass
de mole han de needle mek-fe-water.
Black people, doan fe seek ha crack
dat reveal ha neva-ending masquerade.
Seek-hout de great-sun downtown
hinna de work-song hov de posse.
De sun dat slip-trou forest-dem
safe dat im nu gwan meet-wit ha nymph.
De sun dat destroy number and hav never cross ha dream,
de sun wit-tatoo dat set hinna de river
han call-hout follow-wit halligator.
Blak, Blak, Blak, Blak-dem.
Never did serpent, nor zebra, nor mule
pale-out hat death.
De wood-cutter doan know when dem die
the rattling tree-dem dat him cut.
Await hunder hov de green shade hov yu king
huntil hemlock han thistle han nettle mek-bad de last hov flat-roof.
Then, blacks, then, then,
yu can kiss hinna frenzy wheel hov bicycle,
yu can put pairs of microscopes hinna squirrel-cave
han yu can dance witout-ha-care, while spear-flower
halmost murder hour Moses hinna de rushes hov heaven.
Chu, Aarlem hall dress-hup!
Chu, Aarlem, threaten by ha leaderless crowd hov suits!
Yu rumbling reach me,
yu rumbling reach me crossing de tree-trunk han helevator,
hacross-hov grey sheet-dem,
were yu car-dem do float hall-cover hinna teet,
hacross-hov dead orse-dem han small crime,
hacross-hov yu great king despairing,
who his de greatest hov hall leader.
The Jamaican colonial coat-of-arms
Crocodile, wood, pineapple, nymph?
I can see practical reasons why the poet has the line of Garveyite colours in verse two sloping at the oblique angle that is shown. I also see an invitation to look below the surface of the work. This is not television. Without an active commitment to look at French, African, symbolic and surrealist interpretations you are not worthy of the epic story he is telling. Garvey led a vast multi-national, multi-lingual movement. Garvey was a master of symbolic thought and deed. Garvey’s enemies took him seriously. The idea (among whites) of a white writer praising a black hero, in 1929, was so far from the day-to-day mundane reality that any problems over sexual choices become totally insignificant.
In French ‘un lezard’ is a lizard but ‘une lezarde’ is a crack/una hendidura. The poet seems to invite you to give a meaning to ‘un salamandre’ the orthological reflection of the black lizard of nature. The colour of ivory is the colour of the moon; by extension the colour of the stars. For those who can see the black stars the poet has opened a conversation about black ivory, white to yellow salamanders, the illogicality of an orthography that allows one spoken sound to have more than one spelling and much else besides. Other possible examples of Lanquelorc might be: Ellos son=El leçon. and con avispas=quand n'avise pas. His rules for your journey begin between verses two and three.
retamas/spike/Scotch broom
green and yellow
There is a sub-plot in the work where the poet compares the illogical treachery against Garvey with his own experiences with two individuals, who talked about art and pretended to be his friends. He is deeply angry with himself for being so open and naïve. This anger is channelled into an artistic work; a work that can communicate on many levels.
In 1929 there was only one African flag, the red, yellow/gold and green of the Ethiopian Empire. One saying that is useful and perhaps uniquely Spanish is: ‘As prickly as a thistle’. Pineapples, as all Jamaicans know, are native to Jamaica. The map you will want to consult is a colonial-era map. A guessing game about words ‘Animal, vegetable, mineral?’ would seem to have been known to the writer. The cross is made of wood/du Bois. Garvey’s first wife was “a mule”. Red and white can relate to dead and exiled martyrs. If you allow point-roof/roof tiles/los tejados to be black you will find Garvey’s flag again but it is moving and transforming, and maybe eclipsing.
The last line of the poem is so clever and complete it is beyond translation. The Spanish saying about a leader with a full beard has been embellished by the poet to reach the sea, in a particular place, as the symbolic river of Garvey’s political life reaches the sea. In symbolism the sea could be translated as ‘The End’. With the benefit of eighty years of hindsight I have given a weak approximation.
My translation is from a 1998 Spanish/English edition published by Grupo Santillana de Ediciones (also-known-as Alfaguara). From a 2000 edition by María Clementa Millán I learned more about the development of a story that did not die from gunshot wounds in 1936 and continued to have strong roots after 1940.
The poet’s plans for publication of the 32 poems in Poeta en Nueva York included 18 photographs and photo-montages, with titles and accompanying verses. The titles were listed and translated into English for the 1940 Norton (New York) edition. The translator Rolfe Humphries put it thus: “The typescript indicates that a selection of photographic illustrations was projected for the original book; it is impossible to reproduce them in this volume, but the list might be interesting to record - 1...”.
Only two of these images pertain to the three poems in section-2-Blak-dem. These images first appeared after the initial publication; possibly after the death of anyone who might have been able to dispute their authenticity. Only one image concerns this essay, it is titled: Negro vestido de etiqueta/Negro in Dress Suit (García Lorca/Humphries). Clementa Millán describes the image thus (my translation): ‘This photograph shows the <Rey de Harlem>, concocted by Lorca in his ode to this imaginary character, who symbolises the hopes of the black race in this second poem …’ 2
The photo montage that I see 3 shows a Chaplinesque body in formal dress with the oversized head and hands of a pale-skin pimp attached. The image does not relate in any way to the crocodile eyes of the poem. It is the antithesis of majesty, monarchy and everything we associate with the concept of a king. The image, the poem and the weasel-words of Humphries all hint that the picture of the pale-skin pimp is an interpolation of forged material into the manuscript.
Garvey’s enemies had manipulated images before and Garvey was still alive in 1939 when Poeta en Nueva York was being prepared for publication, in New York. If García Lorca had selected the image of the pale-skin pimp to illustrate his poem, then he could not have been the great poet that many, myself included, believe him to be.
Might this have been the intended photo of The Black Liberator, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, dressed to represent the Commander of Africa’s surreal ambitions?
