L'invention des catégories

Comme il semble que je ne puisse éviter le recours aux maudites catégories de H&F, tiroirs ou lucarnes, grilles, je m’interroge sur la répartition des thématiques. Le seul avantage que je leur trouve, outre la plus grande lisibilité du carnétoile (mais la lisibilité est-elle mon but ?), c’est le clin d’œil possible aux hyperlivres de Michel Butor, dont j’ai déjà mentionné ici la fascination qu’ils exercent sur moi depuis belle lurette.

Un premier survol donne la liste suivante :
 Sites et lieux d’Indre-et-Loire
 Moments de Tours
 Hors Touraine
 Flèche inversée vers les carnétoiles
 Jazeur méridional
 Autres gammes
 Lect(o)ures
 Ecrit(o)ures
 WAW (William At Work)
 WWW (Words, words, words)

Je m’en suis ouvert dans ma réponse à Fuligineuse: maniaque, je vais devoir réenregistrer chacune des notes déjà écrites sous l’une ou l’autre de ces catégories.

En écoute : « La Mélancolie » de Léo Ferré.

Epitrochasme glacial

« Lips, palms, skin, soles of feet were all chapped. »

(Wole Soyinka. Ibadan, p. 119)

Les trois cimetières juifs de Peyrehorade

J’ai, sous les yeux, l’article « Les cimetières juifs de Peyrehorade », de Jean Harambat, paru hier 13 juillet dans l’édition landaise de Sud-Ouest, en dernière page du cahier local, mais aussi le tiré-à-part, prêté par mon beau-père, d’un article paru dans le n° 403 du Bulletin de la Société de Borda, dont l’auteur est une Peyrehoradaise nommée Claudine Laborde et dont le titre est, je vous le donne en mille, « La communauté juive de Peyrehorade aux XVIIe, XVIIIe, et XIXe siècles ».

Extrait du premier :
La coste de l’Hospitaou contourne un muret qu’on escalade aisément : derrière, c’est une infinité de dalles de pierres grises, moussues, couchées, cassées dans l’herbe jaunie. […] C’est le plus ancien des trois cimetières israélites que possède Peyrehorade, seuls témoins de la présence juive en Pays d’Orthe. Il comprenait près d’un millier de sépultures. […] Les défunts des familles juives disséminées à travers les Landes et le Béarn y étaient regroupés.

De la lecture du second, j’ai retrouvé les circonstances dans lesquelles les Juifs d’Espagne et du Portugal, mais aussi de Bologne, étaient parvenus dans ces parages, mais surtout appris les circonstances dans lesquelles les terrains furent achetés, qui devaient servir de champs de tombes.

Au Moyen-Âge, Peyrehorade se nommait Petreforente ou Petraforata, le premier, plus gascon, me semblant plus « actif », grammaticalement parlant, que le second. Quelle coïncidence toponymique, que je me sois penché plus avant sur mes origines peyrehoradaises le jour même où j’écrivais une note fort ligérienne sur la Pierre Percée. Isaac Da Costa, rabbin vers la fin du XVIIe siècle, l’espagnolise en Peña Orada, traduction par homophonie qui me semble détourner le sens étymologique.

Saluons ou exhumons, avec Claudine Laborde, Jacob Léon, rimailleur peyrehoradais du XIXe siècle, auteur du distique suivant :
Cesse de redouter l’impitoyable rage
Des ongles acérés d’une amante en courroux.

Et ce sera la devinette sur laquelle clore cette note ne sembla point vain : imaginez le vers qui précède le premier (rime en –rage) et celui qui suit le second (rime en –oux), afin de reconstituer le quatrain en rimes plates de Jacob Léon…

En écoute : « Le marché du poète » (Léo Ferré)

Strophe avec lettrines

Ils viennent du fond des temps, allant et puis revenant,
Les Tzi les tzi les Tziganes les Tziganes
Ce sont nos parents anciens, les Indo-Européens,
Les Tzi les tzi les Tziganes les Tziganes
Cheval maigre et chien perdu dans la nuit bleue,
Quand je passe je n'ai pas peur d'eux.

(Léo Ferré)

Géopoétique

Une note fort dense et riche en références de Fuligineuse m'a rappelé à de lointains souvenirs. Il y est question de géopoétique, ce concept forgé par le poète écossais Kenneth White.

Soudan: soyons optimistes

Ci-dessous article du NEW YORK TIMES...

Onetime Enemies Join Forces to Lead Sudan on Rocky Road to Peace

By MARC LACEY
Published: July 10, 2005

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 9 - Sudan elevated a former rebel leader on Saturday to the vice presidency of the government he had long tried to overthrow, a merging of onetime combatants into a single leadership that took Sudan another step away from decades of war.

In an elaborate ceremony in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir appointed John Garang, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, as his top deputy. The two longtime enemies waged one of Africa's longest-running civil wars, which caused an estimated two million deaths before a cease-fire accompanied the signing of a peace agreement in January.

But analysts cautioned that Sudan's challenges remain formidable. Power-sharing experiments in countries like Congo, Somalia, and Burundi are fragile, underscoring the brittle nature of such pacts and the fact that the hard work of nation-building begins when the hoopla that follows peace agreements settles.

Still, there was plenty of celebration in Khartoum as the old foes came together at the presidential palace to herald a new start for a country that has experienced far more war than peace since its independence from British-Egyptian rule in 1956. On Friday night, an estimated one million people packed into a central square to welcome Mr. Garang, who last visited the capital 22 years ago.

Besides sharing political power, the government and the southern rebels have agreed to divide up the region's oil wealth, merge their armies and hold a referendum in six years to let southerners, who are predominantly Christian and animist, decide to whether to secede from the rest of Sudan, which is mainly Muslim.

"There's a lot that has to go right for this to work," said David Mozersky, a Sudan analyst at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research institution that follows conflict zones throughout the world. "We can be happy that Sudan has reached this point, but it's too early to celebrate and to consider this an end to the conflict."

Despite the truce between the Sudanese government army and Mr. Garang's southern rebels, skirmishes continue between the rebels and militia groups in the south allied with the government. Rebels have also emerged in eastern Sudan with their own grievances against the government.

Then there is the conflict in the western Darfur region of Sudan, which has drawn international condemnation because of the government's heavy-handed tactics against the civilian population. Peace talks between the government and two groups of Darfur rebels, held in Nigeria, produced a declaration of principles this week but no comprehensive settlement.

"The peace process between north and south must be made irreversible, which it will not be unless it takes root in the east and in the west as well," said Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, one of numerous foreign dignitaries on hand for the ceremony.

Oil remains a source of tension between the government and the Garang-led southerners. Mr. Garang's rebel movement began in 1983 after Chevron discovered oil in the area straddling the country's north and south. Southerners argued that the revenue was only benefiting the north.

The biggest challenge of all may be meeting the expectations of southerners, who are tired of war and eager to see their dismal lives change for the better. Despite commitments of substantial amounts of foreign aid, southern Sudan's needs are profound. The area lacks roads and even basic infrastructure. Diseases wiped out in most other parts of the world continue to thrive there, like guinea worm and river blindness. "We are starting from point zero," Mr. Garang said in a recent interview with Al-Sharq al-Awsat, a newspaper in London. He added: "We in the south have not seen development from the time God created Adam and Eve."

Mr. Garang, 60, is a burly, bearded academic with a fiery temper and a way with words. From the southern Dinka tribe, Mr. Garang speaks English and Arabic, enabling him to bridge the country's language gap.

Although rebels-turned-politicians are commonplace in Africa, Mr. Garang may be one of the few with a doctorate, which he earned in Iowa State University's agricultural economics department. He also attended a United States Army infantry officer's course at Fort Benning, Ga.

His rebel movement has been criticized by human rights organizations for abuses that included summary executions, arbitrary detentions and stealing from civilians. Now the challenge will be transforming that rebel group it into a full-fledged political party that can represent the long-suffering people of the south.

"The future of my country lies in the hands of God," said the Rev. Samuel Alith of the Reform Anglican Church of Sudan, who like thousands of other Sudanese fled to Kenya during the war. "You can never trust these politicians."

There are many comparisons around Africa to illustrate the challenges Mr. Garang and Mr. Bashir will face. Somalia's foes-turned-colleagues have come to blows and remain on the verge of war despite broad-based government. In Congo, leaders who were at war with each other remain wary, even as they sit in the same government in Kinshasa. Burundi's peace accord between rival Hutu and Tutsi is regarded by some analysts as fragile despite recent elections. Mr. Garang said his expectations were realistic and noted that his rebel movement would keep some troops in place for the next six years to ensure the intentions of the government leaders he is now joining in Khartoum. United Nations peacekeeping forces are also being deployed in the south. Mr. Garang sounded an optimistic note in a speech after his swearing-in ceremony.

"Sudan will never be the same again," he said.