Tale
La Reine des poissons
Not translated into English
Mimi Barthélémy · 1990
Synopsis
In the days when the sea teemed with fish around the island, the fisherman Lormilis could not feed his family, until the day he met the queen of the fish, who gave him miraculous catches. His wife, who is ill, nevertheless demands for her cure a court-bouillon of “thazar-woman”, and the fisherman betrays his benefactress, who announces to him as she dies the birth of twins. Once grown, the two brothers set out in search of a magic water able to raise the dead and help the living.
Context
Christiane Makward presents it, on Île en île, as a traditional Haitian tale adapted, told and sung by its author, in which the two languages answer each other. Vif Argent published it in Paris in 1990, then on cassette in 1992. Éditions Kanjil brought out a bilingual version in 2010, with the Creole translation by Reynold Henrys, illustrations painted on silk by Clémentine Barthélémy, a disc on which the storyteller can be heard, and an afterword by Gérard Barthélemy on water and myth.
Who it is for
A picture book for children from five years old, in French with its Creole version, accompanied by a recording of the storyteller's voice.
Prizes and reception
It earned its storyteller the Becker d'or at a festival held in Évry in 1989; it was reissued in 2010 and 2014.