The poetry of Grobli Zirignon: A poetry of the universal Dr VAHI Yagué Department of Modern Letters University of Cocody
Summary
The themes of existence, time and death are recurring in Grobli Zirignon's poetry. However, each of them is perceived in different ways by the poet: existence is a "void", a nothingness which has no reason for being because it does not represent any palpable reality. Time rages by annihilating life on a daily basis and inevitably leads to death which does not constitute an object of anguish insofar as it leads to another life. The philosophers Jean Paul Sartre, Emmanuel Levinas and Berdiaeff Nicolas approach more or less in the same direction with the only difference that they recognize the existence as a traumatic phenomenon but which, to be overcome requires the responsibility of the man. The analyzes carried out here and there show that the aforementioned themes transcend the borders of any country and any continent, attesting to the universality of Grobli Zirignon's poetry and beyond Negro-African poetry.
Introduction:
Black African poetry contributed to the struggle for the freedom of the Negro people by rising up against the inhuman practices of slavery and colonization. Slavery abolished and the political independence of African countries acquired, it undertook to castigate the dictatorial power of its leaders. At that time, we respectfully spoke of the poetry of self-defense and self-criticism. Alongside these were also born sentimental and religious poetry. All these different forms of poetry base their actions on the human condition, on the love of God or the love of man and on suffering man. Despite the indisputable proof of a Negro-African poetry whose different themes interest the world, some critics refuse to recognize its universal character. They maintain that this poetry fits into a precise temporal and spatial space. The present study wants to show the universalist dimension of Negro-African poetry although it is often linked to the history of the Negro people. To achieve this, we will refer to the poetry of Grobli Zirignon. This Ivorian poet published respectively in 1981 and 1982 two collections of poems evocatively: Wrecks et scatters which raise the problems of existence, time and death. These three themes present general visions of the eternal dilemmas which face human beings without any exception and undoubtedly constitute the originality and above all the universality of Grobli Zirignon's poetry.
Existence
The word “existence” comes from the Latin term “existere” which means “to be presently” whether one is animate or inanimate. This is how a stone, a pebble “is” in a way, inanimate. The plant “is” the animal “is”, the man “is animated”. In this case, being is radically opposed to nothingness; but among the beings or the set of things that are, man occupies a place of choice insofar as he is the only one to be aware of his own existence. Man is distinguished from animals or from a thing because he concretely manifests his presence in the world. This presence is displayed and affirmed daily by the capacity of man to reason, to express his feelings, his emotions, to change his environment; in a word, man is endowed with intelligence. It is then said that things and animals have an invariable essence. Only man has an essence that he can create at any time thanks to his intelligence which we were talking about earlier. For Lévinas “Existence is conceived as a persistence in time.” It is because man “is” in time that he exists. Outside of this reality, everything collapses around him.
As for the poet Grobli, "existence is emptiness of emptiness of condensed emptiness"
Existence is assimilated to a space from which we have removed plants, animals, stones, streams or water points, in short everything that made its beauty, gave it life and a more human. No one can dissect the meaning of its existence because it “is” when in reality it is not. Man, in this gloomy space sails desperately without being able to cling to any object since around him, the “void” extends to infinity and the rubble is piling up in unimaginable confusion. Existence is nothingness which is accentuated daily. Its disastrous state amplifies and becomes always more “condensed”, thick when time continues its dark march towards an unknown destination. The longer parallel constructions seen in verses 3 and 4 of the poem below suggest a gradation, a negative progression of an existence which keeps blending into a fact of no capital importance or of little value because it does not contain nothing concrete and attractive if not a gloomy “void” which unfolds under a rainbow of (Levinas (Emmanuel), From existence to existing, Paris, librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 1998, p Grobli Zirignon, idem p. 22 2) human miseries, evils strewn on the edge of a yawning abyss in which existence has built its seat: in the bottomless abyss there is something like a hair generating illusion of existence.
No existence knows an unlimited duration in space and time. Sooner or later she ends up borrowing the insipid spell of chaos from the depths. The “bottomless abyss” represents in this poem the end of a short or long hike that each human being undertakes in solitude. The beginning of this experience seems at first to amaze him but in the end, he realizes that he is sinking into an indescribable “illusion” because he lets himself go to hell like “a hair” in the eyes. moving waves of a swollen river. Consequently, existence constantly translates the enigma that we dread because it goes beyond our understanding: it is a curious partner that is offered to us there, monstrous, this impenetrable and overused thing that existence is
Human beings allow themselves, against their will, to be drawn into the arms of existence. He would have liked to move away from this “curious partner” knowing that this only engenders bitterness and disappointment; but he does not have the capacity because it was “offered” to him on the sly without having first time to think wisely before forming a friendship with her. Forced and resigned from now on, man adapts to cohabiting with this “monstrous” plague whose dismal secrets nobody can decipher because it is “impenetrable” is “overused”, affected by senility as soon as she sees the day. Faced with this enigma, man loses his serenity and displays his indocility: like these dissipated children who immediately left no longer know why they were sent so here we are at a loss and having lost all memory of our fundamental project in existence.
Existence inevitably disturbs the tranquility of man. She infantilizes the latter to the point that he often performs incoherent and irresponsible acts. His attitude undoubtedly stems from the trauma that existence inflicts on him on a daily basis. Indeed, the birth of man merges with his existence whose adventures are punctuated by hardships to overcome. The man, disconcerted, who no longer knows where he is, who no longer knows what to say and what to do, no longer has control of himself. Stunned like certain “children” who, once “sent” by an adult to a precise place, ignore upon their arrival the reasons for which they made the trip, the man wanders on earth without any compass “having lost all memory” of its fundamental project in existence ”. Therefore, he does not know where he came from and where he is going as well as the reasons for his presence in the world. Its existence is therefore an inopportune pleasure that the poet assimilates moreover to: something like an empty erection.
At first glance, existence seems to be an attractive phenomenon which irresistibly appeals to man. In doing so, it without taking any precaution attaches itself to it wonderfully. It was after a long stay in his company that he realized he had made a mistake. He should not have been moved early on like a man whose penis is eagerly “erect” in all places and under all circumstances. The male sex which, logically, is a noble reproductive organ suddenly becomes “something” vulgar as much as a base and destructive existence of the breath of life. In this unhealthy atmosphere, man struggles to get rid of the evils that this bad companion propagates within human society. The ordeal being difficult to endure, the man adopts an attitude which does not escape the vigilance of the poet: to exist is to trample on the other at least symbolically. Existence resembles a vast battlefield where there is total insecurity. Men and women then seek ways and means to escape the fighting. As a result, no one dares to pay attention to the presence of "the other". Everyone even allows themselves to “tread” it “at their feet” in their frantic race towards a haven of peace. The adverb “symbolically” modifies the involuntary attitude of man towards his neighbors. Which attitude finds its origin in the violent emotional shock caused by the existence on the human being. This physical torture orchestrated by existence takes effect from the birth of man as Grobli melancholically underlines: to exist is to be thrown out and reduced to spinning like a lost soul around the closed house. For the poet, the fetus enjoys relative security and protection during the nine months that it must spend in the womb of the mother or at least in this "closed house" in the enclosure of which no external being. will not disturb or harm its existence. After its maturation, it will obviously go out there. It is at this moment that he will be condemned to face, against his will, the difficulties and the existential torments. No one can shake off this burden that existence inevitably imposes on us. This is, moreover, one of the major elements of the human condition. Jean-Paul Sartre approaches in the same direction when he affirms: "If I exist, it is because I have a horror of existing (...) It is I who pulls myself out of the nothingness to which I aspire: hatred , the disgust of existing; these are all ways of making myself exist to sink myself into existence ”Man cannot claim to really exist when he feels a keen“ horror of existing ”. There, we realize that existence is not easy. It constantly vitiates the surrounding environment of man and drags him into a sharp whirlwind of anguish. Consequently, man looks for an escape route to “get out of the nothingness” that constitutes his existence. Jean-Paul Sartre thinks that the feelings that each of us have towards our neighbor in this case "hatred, disgust, joy, sadness ..." fight against the emptiness that surrounds us and makes us "sink into existence ”or founds the concrete reasons for our presence in the world; hence the importance of others in our individual plan of existence. The man who then persists in solitude runs real dangers as Emmanuel Levinas indicates "Existence drags a weight, if only itself which complicates its journey of existence". From this moment, the one who carries it alone, risks succumbing if he is not careful.
"The first step of existentialism is to put every man in possession of what he is and to release your responsibility for his existence to rest on him". Every human being gives an orientation to his existence as he sees fit. He is its only guide. While for Grobli, 'Existence equates to nothingness, to a' condensed void 'or to a phenomenon that draws us towards an unknown horizon, making us its prey, the existentialists, on the other hand, think that we have the ability to make our existence what we want it to be. You just have to have the will. At the end of the first part of this work, we note that existence constitutes one of the major facts of our reason for being in the world. Indeed, no one escapes it and poeticizing it denotes its universality.
Time
The lexeme “time” comes from the Latin “tempus, temporis” which means duration, epoch, being or moment. Time designates an indefinite environment where the succession of phenomena seems to unfold. For empiricists, time is an order of constructed relationships; the order of successives (which is the order of coexisting) and can, moreover, be constructed from it through experience and habit. For metaphysicians and theologians, time is the mode of being of what passes as opposed to eternity, which is the mode of being of what remains. Saint Augustine maintains that time is elusive and no one can define it. His multiple unanswered questions attest to "what, in fact, is time?" Who would be able to express it easily and briefly? Who can conceive of it even in thought easily enough to express in words the idea which is formed of it? " . Time is a real enigma for man, a dilemma that still has no answer. We represent it vaguely in our "thought" and no lexicologist can define it "clearly enough" with precise or exact "words" in order to translate smoothly "the idea" that we "have". Accordingly, "The problem of time is the fundamental problem of human existence." For man, time is of the utmost importance. The actions we perform daily, the actions we take, the relationships we have with others, the work we do every day, the trips we take and the thoughts that drive us are realized in the space and especially in time. Man cannot get rid of time. This is therefore the foundation, the major and essential element which guides it and irresistibly possesses it. For Immanuel Kant, “Time is a necessary representation which serves as the foundation for all intuitions (…) without it, any reality of the phenomenon is impossible”. Sartre (Jean-Paul), L'Existentialisme est un humanisme, Paris, Nagel, 1, p Augustin (Saint), Les Confessions, Paris, Garnier, 1970, p Berdiaeff (Nicolas), Cinq Meditations sur l existence, Paris, Montaigne , 1976, p Kant (Emmanuel), Critique of pure reason, Paris, PUF, 1936, p.1972 61
Time concretizes and objectivizes the thing and the being. These exist within and under the pressure of an absolutely necessary and primordial time. Apart from it, “all reality of the phenomenon is impossible” or merges with nothingness without life and without visual physical form because “Time exists because there is activity, creative action”. All of man's faculties, his aptitudes or his eagerness to act and his occupations are part of the uninterrupted course of time. In doing so, man 's "activity" or "creative action" is intimately linked to the temporal reality in which the latter constantly donates. As human beings savor the delights of life, time diminishes them dangerously. This tragic and distressing reality omnipresent Grobli Zirignon when he affirms: life is atrocious, we are there and we wonder what to do with these passing hours. The poet recognizes the victory of time over all human beings. He even admits defeat in advance and is content to verbally display his destructive abilities. He accuses her of making "existence atrocious"; which means that time makes life ugly by taking away all its beauty, all its splendor. Faced with the devastating rage of time, we are there helpless and disconcerted, since we are convinced that no force can put an end to the evils that time spreads in all directions. Tired of being subjected to his unimaginable monstrosity, the poet “wonders what to do” because he tragically continues on his way; and the “ticking hours” intensify human anguish and misery. The poet then thinks that death is a deliverance, a boon to escape the traumatic and annihilating atrocities of time. The vicious and constant agitations caused by it will have a happy ending as indicated by Grobli: Ah that is not time reversible and can we not re-become very small to re-turn in the breast of the good mother and rest a little far from the tensions of this tormented world. As for the poet, he does not pretend to flee time and its avalanches of anguish. Rather, he gets bogged down in regret mixed with despair. Because the powerlessness of man in the face of time is cruelly displayed in the daily life of all mortals. Indeed, man cannot go back to the past and (Berdiaeff (Nicolas), op cit, p Grobli (Zirignon), op cit p Idem, p.60) attempt to repair the errors he has made. It is also impossible for him to anticipate the time. GROBLI would very much like to become very small again “to enjoy pleasantly the beautiful days of paradise lost from childhood; but unfortunately, he realizes his inability to achieve his goal since this possibility would cause him to be reborn, to return to the starting point of his existence. No one has the power to relive their own “conception” or to metamorphose into a fetus in their mother's womb in order to start a new life. We can no longer go "to stay in the bosom of the good mother" to "rest little" there. The poet's urgent wishes to reclaim the past and project into the future are inevitably doomed to failure. He will never have the opportunity to relive the past or change the course of time. This will continue to harm human existence atrociously, to intensify the “tensions of this world”; to move away from it would be a victory illusion: And time passes and we age and towards death we are drawn. Existence is the sum of a life traversed here and there by time. An impetuous, devastating time which carries us away and carries away all that is dear to us, which makes ugly through old age all that was beautiful. The use of the conjunction of coordination “and” comes to corroborate the idea of wandering and dispersion of the existent - of the one who lives. It expresses the ascending gradation of an existence which inevitably leads to death. All in all, the theme of time crosses the individual and is addressed to all human beings without exception.
Death
Death is the final cessation of all biological life, the end point of all existence. It is a shutdown of the biological mechanisms specific to all living things. For Emmanuel Levinas, death "is the stopping of behavior, the stopping of expressive movements and of movement or physiological processes". 21 Stopping this mechanism, this behavior and these expressive movements is one of the inescapable certainties of a human being's life. Death is therefore the only thing in the world that we are completely sure of. Amadou Hampaté Bâ affirms it in these terms: Beings are prisoners. Grobli Zirignon, op cit, p Levinas (Emmanuel), Death and time, Paris, Herne, 1971, p.13 8
A relentless prisoner of death, man is a prey to death. It hinders our existence and no one can appease its violence and anger. For Grobli Zirignon, the human being is forced to face daily the time which leads him towards death: It is all the time that we die and death closes it always arrived on top of the market like the fatal flick. We will die “all the time” because the passing of time takes us away. We must add to this reality the instinctual ambivalence with the simultaneous presence of the time / life couple and the domination of the first (time) over the second (life). Death always comes against thick and thin and against the will of the living; it is therefore “a fatal flick”, a violent blow that no one can avoid. Human existence is always reflected in its precariousness. It lights up for an instant and then goes out: is human existence different from this flame which trembles in the evening wind and which death will blow away. A light as bright as it is results from combustion. It gradually attenuates until it forms a darkness. We can assimilate “human existence” to a fiery “flame” which, after having consumed matter, decreases in intensity to transform into an opaque and gloomy night. “Human existence” sooner or later ends up being damaged and disappearing against the will of those who live. It is for this reason that Grobli considers man as a “banana” that God roasts when he desires it: man is a banana, God's banana that God roasts in the fire of existence and that he consumes. Hampaté Ba (Amadou), Kaydara, Dakar, NEA, 1978, p Grobli (Zirignon), idem, p Grobli (Zirignon), op cit, p.41 9
Bananas are perishable fruits. It is consumed as soon as it reaches maturity, otherwise it becomes a spoiled product. Man has a limited lifespan, so too are bananas. It is mortal and its existence is likened to that of a “banana” that “God roasts and consumes” at his convenience. Human existence is therefore synonymous with degradation, sorrow, disappointment, misery and anguish. It inevitably leads us into turmoil and consternation: the existence of this disease which can only be cured by death. For the poet, existence is assimilated to an infection which disintegrates the body and causes the organism to malfunction. Death is the only medicine that heals and heals this disease that is existence. Despite the suffering that death inflicts on us on a daily basis, Grobli remains dignified and confident: death does not exist to die is to become God and for man it is to fulfill the dearest of his wishes This conception is unanimously shared by black Africans. Indeed, these think and firmly believe that the man after his death joins his ancestors in the beyond to lead an eternal life there. To die is to enter eternity. Grobli underlines it in these terms: "death is the peace of the brave" Synonymous with eternal rest, death does not feel conquered when faced with courage and determination. The brave accepts to die knowing that he is victorious over death. Does he believe in a possible reincarnation or an extension of life in the afterlife? Everything thinks to believe it as we indicated earlier because the poet keeps his serenity in front of such a cruel phenomenon. To season his dose of bravery, he enlists the help of art: by means of art and other nonsense we strive to fill the hole of ek-sistence. Ibidem p GROBLI Zirignon, op cit, p Idem, p.1 82.
The craftsman of beauty, the one who devotes himself to painting, music, engraving… and other small, harmless occupations kills in him the pangs or torments of existence and death. Art is not child's play, a hypocritical way of trying to hide laziness or cowardice. Far from it; because art allows man never to get bogged down in negative thoughts and to reconsider death as an epiphenomenon: not everything is swallowed up in the universal sinking of things there is still culture, this bottle at the sea this fossil this wreck derisory sign of man 's will for eternity. Despite the cruelty of death, the poet does not sink into pessimism. For him, man is not a being totally and definitively condemned. There is always something from his life or his actions that survives him. From its remains, its debris and its ruins, "in the universal shipwreck of things", we can extract culture. So all is not lost. Culture is part of this human wreckage that resists death. It affects the vagaries of the weather and the virulence of the weather. The poet assimilates it to a “bottle in the sea” which always remains overhanging the surface of the ocean whose waves never manage to throw it back on the shore. Man is certain of his own death; but culture constitutes the “ridiculous sign of its will for eternity”. Ultimately, death remains, forever a fatal outcome for all existing - the one who lives. It is an undeniable certainty and gives Grobli Zirignon's poetry a universal dimension.
Conclusion:
Grobli Zirignon gives no meaning to existence which, for him, does not exist. It contains nothing visible, concrete, has no matter. Its content is never garnished. Existence presents a vast and hollow area that no one can fill. It lacks density because it assimilates to an abyssal pit in a nameless space where there is nothing to maintain itself. And sooner or later all human beings will swallow it up. Jean-Paul Sartre, Emmanuel Levinas and Berdiaeff Nicolas recognize the existence of existence. But, they recommend to face it, an awareness and human responsibility. 29 Ibidem, p ibidem, p.4 11
Death does not move Grobli Zirignon. It is an epiphenomenon. It should not be the object of anguish because it leads to another life. Moreover, he proposes to fight it by having recourse to culture. Paradoxically, he recognizes the threat of time. This makes old age ugly what was beautiful and inevitably leads to death. Consequently, the phenomena of existence, time and death constitute, after analyzing different points of view of the authors, a constant concern for all who live. They concern the world, the universe as a whole and therefore extend to all beings and ideas. Existence, time and death highlight the contingency of the human condition. In doing so, Grobli Zirignon, by treating the aforementioned themes in his poetry, gives it a universal character.
Bibliography 1- Grobli (Zirignon), Epaves, Abidjan at the author's home, 1980 (Corpus) 2- Grobli (Zirignon), Dispersions, Paris, Silex, 1982, (Corpus) 3- Augustin (Saint), Les confessions, Paris, Garnier, Berdiaeff (Nicolas), Five meditations on existence, Paris, Montaigne, Hampaté Ba (Amadou), Kaydara, Dakar, NEA, 1978, 6- Kant (Emmanuel) Critique of pure reason, Paris, PUF, 1972, 7- Levinas (Emmanuel), From existence to existing, Paris, Philosophical library J. Vrin, 1998, 8- Levinas (Emmanuel), Death and time, Paris, Herne, Meschonic (Henri) Pour la poétique 1, Paris, Gallimard, Sartre (Jean Paul), La Nausée, La nausée, Paris, Gallimard, Sartre (Jean Paul), Existentialism is a humanism, Paris, Nagel, Todokov (Tzvétan), 2. Poetics,