Cahier(s) de traduction

Aimé Césaire’s Cahier d’un retour au pays natal, a fundamental text of French literature, is a fluid poem that changes at the same pace as its poet and the world around him. Moreover, we have neither a manuscript of the original version of the poem nor a true definitive version, since the so-called “definitive” version of 1956 is not the last existing version of the text. This fluidity is further complicated by the numerous translations of the Cahier, which multiply the possibilities of reading and interpreting it, because of the movement inherent in any act of translation that introduces diversity into the original text, and because of the fact that these translations are based on different “originals”. In this introduction, after a brief history of the genetic evolution of the poem, we will also highlight the fundamental role played by translation in the evolution of the text, which will allow us to continue its exploration and to contribute to a plural and multilingual reading of Césaire’s work.