Jonathan Mayers
Self-Portrait. Digital image. 2020.
In Kouri Vini:
Trwa-kar mérikin, li sé linmé
Kolonizé tou partou lil
Kawènn épi kan li li di wi
Li linm li linm Fran, kakofoni
Si yé donn li yê bonn lavi
Ga – çon sèt tèt fanflish, li swèt
Fé særtin nouzòt gin ariyin
Si fin-la sé rivé byinto
Li sé di nou trouvé nô ké
Pi li sé ri apré nô parin
Ki çé ki di yé yé linm kiltir
Lalwizyàn, li byin inondé
Avèk moun k’ap fé pa li plézi
Mé yé konné ayoù vouzòt sòr
Traka pa konné gouvèné
In English:
‘Merican Virginia flower would love
To colonize all around Isle
Turtle and then when it says yes, yes
It loves it loves Fran, cacophony
If they give it their rich breath
Look–seven head bauble, baw wishing
To make certain we ain’t got a thing
If the end were comin’ soon
He’d tell us “Watch your backends,”
While he laughs about our parrains
Who says they love this culture
Louisiane, it’s well full up
Wit’ people disrespectin’ its cheer
But they know exactly where you from
Trouble ain’t know how to steer
(Published in Kouri-Vini/Louisiana Creole on Le Bourdon de la Louisiane)
Jonathan Mayers
Karankro k'ap gèté (Vulture’s Watching). Digital image. 2019.
In July, Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome announced the appointment of Baton Rouge’s third Poet Laureate: the visual artist, writer, and language activist Jonathan Mayers, sometimes known as “rat de bois farouche” or “feral opossum”. Previously featured in our pages for his vivid, mythological illustrations of Louisiana’s environmental travails, Mayers’ artistic practice is a multi-facted one, centered around a reclamation of what he calls authenticité Louisiana.
[Read about Mayers' work as a visual artist, here.]
Language preservation is at the heart of this work, in which Mayers intentionally utilizes and shares the endangered Louisiana Creole language of Kouri-Vini, which is today spoken by fewer than ten thousand people.
“A lot of the people I’ll be working with don’t know or even realize that their families, their ancestors, spoke this language,” he said. “That’s going to be an important aspect, having people learn a little more about Kouri-Vini and how they can be a part of rebuilding the language into our vocabulary.”
[Read about the history of French language in St. Landry Parish here.]
In his new role as the Baton Rouge Poet Laureate, Mayers said that a major component of his programming will be focused on sharing this dying language with new audiences. “A lot of the people I’ll be working with don’t know or even realize that their families, their ancestors, spoke this language,” he said. “That’s going to be an important aspect, having people learn a little more about Kouri-Vini and how they can be a part of rebuilding the language into our vocabulary.” Mayers said that he has plans to invite aspiring writers to submit their own poetry for translation. “Having your work translated into another language,” he said, “can build rapport, community, and a new understanding of one’s culture.”
Part of Mayers’ existing practice is to simply use the language in day to day life. It’s how he answers the phone, how he bids adieu. He hopes to use this new platform to spread that sentiment even further, he said, teaching people simple phrases they can use in their regular conversations, including:
Komen to yê? (How are you?)
Mo byin, mèsi! (I’m well thanks!)
Maringwin pèddi sô tem kan li piké kaïman. (The mosquito wastes his time trying to bite the alligator.)
And finally: “Mo linm twa.” “I love you.” “Because,” said Mayers, “I think people need to hear more of that anyway.”
