Between Louisiana and Florida
Mardi-Gras in New-Orléans
Under the blazing sun of the vast plantations,
Sugar was king, master of nations,
The cypress-lined avenues whispered their history,
Shadows and memories, between splendor and despair.
The columns stood proudly, motionless,
White palaces sculpted with fragile silence,
In the warm air awoke the song of labor,
The heady scent of sugarcane and flowers.
Splendor and cruelty intertwined their destinies,
Beneath the ancient oaks with their bowed branches,
And the wind carried back, with the passing seasons,
The echo of a lost time, heavy with contradictions.
Beneath the deep balconies, overflowing with green foliage,
The brass of an old sax awakens the shadows,
The Beetle advances, a wondrous chariot,
Blooming with golden feathers that swirl in the sky,
The Harley roars its mauve and its gleam,
In the air that confetti dusts with its sparkle,
Over there, the wide river stretches its silver,
And dreams of a slow steamboat, smoking mist and time,
Its breath makes the old jazz refrains dance,
While a golden evening descends on the bayou and sets it ablaze.
Let the good times roll!
If Natchez has been told to you, it is because the river watches over you,
That in the heart of its golden mists memory murmurs,
And that a distant echo, stronger than our battles,
Still sings of the ancients in the night without history.
Under the Louisiana skies where the drums rumble,
I saw the carnival blossom in a thousand finery,
The colorful necklaces, the splendor of the old square,
And the shadow of Bechet singing in the mists.
I once trod the marshes, a place once offered to outlaws,
Alcatraz Alligator, a sad den of the disenfranchised,
But I stayed the course, pen slung over my shoulder,
To tell the truth beneath the weight of illusions.
O Louisiana and Florida, you were my backdrop,
Your legends, your shadows, your golden trumpets,
I return with a heart full of fables and stories,
Here the Arié…Joy has inscribed its mark in black letters.
Farewell, end of the world, where the sea comes to die,
Where the old man watched over his dreams,
Under the final sun, I leave my prayer,
And the echo of my heart is lost in the light.
Guy says l’Arié…..Joie