Here are two versions of translations Bernard Dadie's poem with similar titles I Thank You God / I Give You Thanks My God --- read and enjoy.
I THANK YOU GOD – BERNARD DADIE
I thank you God for creating me black,
For making of me
Porter of all sorrows,
Setting on my head
The world.
I wear the Centaur’s hide
And I have carried the World since the first morning.
White is a colour for special occasions
Black the colour for every day
And I have carried the World since the first evening.
I am glad
Of the shape of my head
Made to carry the World,
Content
With the shape of my nose
That must snuff every wind of the World
Pleased
With the shape of my legs
Ready to run all the heats of the World.
I thank you God for creating me black
For making of me
Porter of all sorrows.
Thirty-six swords have pierced my heart,
Thirty-six fires have burnt my body.
And my blood on all calvaries has reddened the snow,
And my blood at every dawn has reddened all nature.
Still, I am
Glad to carry the World,
Glad of my short arms
of my long legs
of the thickness of my lips.
I thank you God for creating me black.
White is a colour for special occasions
Black the colour for every day
And I have carried the World since the dawn of time.
And my laugh over the World, through the night, creates
The Day.
I thank you God for creating me black.
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I GIVE YOU THANKS MY GOD – BERNARD DADIE
(translated by La Ronde des Jours)
I Give you thanks my God for having created me black
For having made of
The total of all sorrows,
and set upon my head
the World.
I wear the livery of the Centaur
And I carry the World since the first morning.
White is colour improvised for an occasion
Black, the colour of all days
And I carry the World since the first night.
I am happy
With the shape of my head
fashioned to carry the World,
satisfied with the shape of my nose,
Which should breathe all the air of the World,
happy
with the form of my legs
prepared to run through all the stages of the World.
I give you my thanks my God, for having created me black,
for having made of
the total of all sorrows.
Thirty-six swords have pierced my heart.
Thirty-six brands have burned my body,
And my blood on all the calvaries had reddened the snow
And my blood from all the east has reddened all nature.
And yet I am
Happy to carry the World,
Content with my short arms,
with my long legs,
with the thickness of my lips.
I give you thanks my God for having created me black,
White is colour for an occasion,
Black the colour of all days
And I carry the World since the morning of time.
And my laughter in the night brought forth day over
the world.
I give you thanks my God for having created me black.
-----
I Give You Thanks My God / I Thank You God -- Bernard Dadie
Bernard Dadie’s poem “I Give You Thanks My God” / “I Thank You God” is a beautiful and thought-provoking anthem for black pride and their sufferings. The poem allegorically weaves around biblical, historical, and mythical tales.
Bernard Dadie is representing the entire black race to give his thanks to God for having made black men the bearers of the world’s sorrow. The poem is a symbolic assertion of the history of forced service / slavery and suppression that the black race has endured since “the first morning” and “the first night” of creation.
“God called the light “day”, and the darkness He called “night”. And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day (Genesis 1:3)
From the origin of human race, the black men are made “the total of all sorrows” reveals that the biblical allusion to Jesus Christ as a man of all sufferings.
“He was despised, and rejected by others; a man of suffering, and familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem”. (Isaiah 53:3)
The poem “I Give You Thanks My God”/ “I Thank You god” is an apt and right way in comparing the black man to Jesus Christ bearing the weight of “The World” on his head in the livery of a Centaur, a mythological living being half-man, half-horse.
I am happy
with the shape of my head
fashioned to carry the World,
satisfied with the shape of my nose,
which should breathe all the air of the world,
happy
with the form of my legs
prepared to run through all the stages of the World
Bernard Dadie is pleased and proud to be a black man that they have been so formed to help him bear the total of all sorrows and sufferings and prepared to run through all the stages of the world. In all generations of human evolution, the black man has been a crucial role-player, leaving his footprints in the entire human history.
Thirty-six swords have pierced my heart.
Thirty-six brands have burned my body,
And my blood on all the calvaries has reddened the snow
And my blood from all the east has reddened nature.
And yet I am
Happy to carry the World,
Content with my short arms,
with my long legs,
with the thickness of my lips.
Thirty-six swords have pierced my heart is very similar to the Christ on the cross where a spear thrust into his side.
“But he was pierced for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5)
Thirty-six brands have burnt my body proved that he is a victim of all types of exploitations, a slave of more than one owner, eligible to be trampled by all. Like Christ whose blood reddened the snow of all calvary, the hill outside Jerusalem on which Christ was crucified, similarly the Blackman’s blood reddened the snow of the foreign lands in ruthless crimes of slavery and colonialism.
Yet, Dadie is thankful to God for creating his race black because the white is only colour for an occasion but black is the colour of all days. He laughs in the night with his heart content hopefully that this laughter brings the strength to defeat the burden of his oppression.
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comments written by mastanappa puletipalli
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