Four Poems by Khal Torabully

Excerpts from Cargo Hold of Stars: Coolitude


[Define me please]

Define me please:
what’s a Coolie?
One with a noose round his neck
denied the deck’s cool lee side?
I am Lascar, Malabar,
Madras tamarind from bazaars,
Telugu with tell-tails for you.
Cruel Marathi mother or Chamar.
Whichever you like, I’m an Indian Black,
guinea pig, from Port Louis to Port-of-Spain
to replace mighty Zanzibar slaves.
For memory, my only langouti, a loincloth,
my language, purloined by the sea.
If you recognize me, please
call me proxy slave,
strawman or stand-in,
kapok from fields or ocean vertebrae.
But know that my sabre of blood
has uprooted me to the core.


[Malabar]

Malabar, me the spar
me mound of dirt
me of salt, me of flesh:
my worn-out lascar soul
quarter Malay, third malaise
will be fragments
broken cross-beams of sky
body broken
from setting sail.
To be a moutaille
I’ll be undone, over there,
malady of mind
maligned Malayalam,
a lone me will be lost,
me so right, left to rot,
o memory.


[I want to go to the grand bazaar]

I want to go to the grand bazaar
to seek at last the saffron of shadows
o refrain from your refrain
the hoist of spices clears the remains
o refrain from your refrain
for your bodies heaped on the wind:
cries of cumin: cries my journey’s route
cries of thyme: cries my future
cries of coriander corpses awaiting return.
And the bids of roots chased away
my terrified dreams all the way to hell.


[Do you know the tale]

Do you know the tale
of the lonesome man
in the East India Trading Company?
His skin was lit with sparks
salt-pond pores
on a rainy night.
To the pearls of spume
his voice became an almanac
for seasons of exile.
Often this man
returned to the seas
on the dalo of his wound.
Sometimes along streets
of lost waves
he blows out stars
on his china divans.
Often long blue rattan
brands his flesh with algae
from the horizon’s only shipwreck.
To ignite the dawn
of crystal cries
this loner
sells iron stoves
in the paved courtyard of lagoons.



Translated from the French by Nancy Naomi Carlson.

Poems originally appeared in Cargo Hold of Stars: Coolitude (Seagull Books, 2021). Reprinted by permission of Seagull Books.