Jean-joseph rabearivelo biography of williams

One of Africa's most important French-language poets, a prominent figure in the literary revival known as the Mitady ny Very, which swept Madagascar in the 1930s.

Jean-Joseph Rab�arivelo wrote both in Malagasy and in his own unique version of imperfect French. He was passionate and restless, drifted from one job to another, and suffered from drug addiction and depression. Rab�arivelo took his own life at the age of 36.

Jean-joseph rabearivelo biography of williams brothers

And you witness of his daily suffering
and of his endless task;
you atch his thunder-riddled agony
until the battlements of the East re-echo
the conches of the sea –
but you pity him no more
and do not even remember that his sufferings begin again
each time the sun capsizes.

(from Traduit de la nuit, 1935 )

Jean-Joseph Rab�arivelo was born in Antananarivo (Tananarive), the capital of Madagascar, into a relatively poor family. His mother, who married a tailor, was an aristocrat, related to the royalty of the largest Malagasy e