New Yorkers
New Yorkers
Traduction:
Je suis né ici,
Ce n’est pas un mensonge, dit-il
Juste ici, sous le ciel de Dieu.
Je ne suis pas née ici, dit-elle
Je viens – et pourquoi?
Je viens,
De parents qui travaillent dur
Toutes leurs vies
Jusqu’à ce qu’ils meurent
Et ne possèdent aucune partie
De la terre ni du ciel
Donc je suis venue ici.
Maintenant, qu’ai-je ?
Toi!
Elle retroussa ses lèvres
Dans l’obscurité:
La même vieille étincelle !
The poem :
The poem is a part of
Montage of a Dream Deferred Dream: American Dream?
The title:
Suppositions :
The setting : New York
Many people
New : a begin, new people
So the poem is maybe about a relation between many people at New York. With something starting, (a new life, a love story …)
Dramatic Situation
There are two characters. A man and a woman. They are talking by another person; it’s postponing lyrics. A woman has come to New York to make a fortune. And in fact she found love. The speaker organize a dialogue.
The poem can be addressed to everybody.
Structure :
I was born here,
That’s no lie, he said,
Right here beneath God’s sky.
3 lines
I wasn ’t born here, she said,
I come -- and why ?
Where I come from
Folks work hard
All their lives
Until they die
And never own no parts
Of earth nor sky
So I come up here.
Now what’ve I got?
You !
11 lines , Italic passage to show the changement of character.
She lifted up her lips
In the dark:
The same old spark.
3 lines again, so a kind of regularity in the poem.
First stanza
No rhymes
He believes in God
A man native from New York
Second stanza
Woman
Immigrant (not native from New York)
Her parents are maybe already dead
Not easy life.
She wants to gives a homage to her parents and fulfill her dream, have a good life.
Love declaration.
Third stanza
They are probably kissing
Maybe old persons
Return to the present
Conclusion
It’s a dialogue between two characters, we can see at the end of the poem that it’s the woman who is remembering her love declaration to a man who is, perhaps now, her husband.
The poem tells about the immigration and probably the American dream.