This work is only available in French.
Collection: Au rendez-vous des vivant·es (2025)
Text by Rose Després. Digital artwork by Raph Dely.
Dépaysement
Par Rose Després
Pour Gérald Leblanc
Un pied dans l’Amérique
l’autre sur Paris
des klaxons d’ambulances
parmi nos voltiges cubaines
Xanadu itou
le refuge du receleur
gronde et dans le vrombissement
les murs trop fragiles sont morcelés
l’orgueil dépeçant dépasse les frontières
permissibles
impossibles
on s’esquive
on s’efface du territoire imaginaire
sans estimer ses panoramas
les esplanades et les si beaux parcours
les perspectives où j’atteris à toi en dansant
un gigantesque bouquet de roses
pour ta brève escale sur la planète
Référence complète : Després, Rose. « Dépaysement », Vraisemblable. Éditions Prise de parole, 2013, page 19.
Le poème est reproduit ici avec la permission des Éditions Prise de parole.
To cite this article:
Gérald Leblanc
Gérald Leblanc (1955–2005) was an Acadian poet born in Bouctouche, New Brunswick. A leading figure in contemporary Acadian literature, he was a prolific author who published numerous collections of poetry, novels, and critical texts. His writing (often shaped by urban life, popular culture, and a strong drive for identity-based emancipation) helped to modernize the Acadian poetic voice.
Based for many years in Moncton, he played an active role in the city’s cultural effervescence alongside other artists and writers, particularly through the publishing house Perce-Neige and the collective Les Éditions d’Acadie.
Raph Dely
Raph Dely (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice ranges from experimental game design and immersive cinema to conceptual art, performance, and theatre. Their artistic escape stems from an obsession with staging and interactivity, focusing their work on the audience’s experience of the artwork. They were shortlisted for the Lumen Art Prize in the UK, created a video game about miscarriage that was recognized by Kotaku as one of the best obscure games of 2020, and co-founded the Laborare Collective with Marine Theunissen. They also traveled across Europe for six months on artistic residencies, producing screen prints and conducting choreographic research-creation on rising sea levels. Since 2021, they have been deeply involved with Living Arts, contributing video design, scenography, writing, and even interactive design to more than a dozen performances.
Rose Després
Acadian poet and activist, Rose Després is also a multidisciplinary artist, active in theatre, singing, dance, and as a mentor and writing workshop facilitator. She has been taking part in cultural events and literary festivals across Canada and abroad for more than forty years. She is also a literary translator: femme-rivière / river woman by Katherena Vermette (Prise de parole, 2019), Le pluvier Kildir / Killdeer by Phil Hall (Prise de parole, 2015). Her seventh collection, Séjour à Belle-Côte, was published by Prise de parole in 2022. She received the Éloizes Award for Literature in 2010 for Si longtemps déjà (Prise de parole, 2009), and the Antonine-Maillet Acadie-Vie Award in 2000 for La vie prodigieuse (Éditions Perce-Neige).
