- published: 10 May 2016
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Saint-John Perse (first Saint-Leger Leger, pseudonyms of Alexis Leger) (31 May 1887–20 September 1975) was a French poet, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1960 "for the soaring flight and evocative imagery of his poetry." He was also a major French diplomat from 1914 to 1940, after which he lived primarily in the USA until 1967.
Alexis Leger was born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. His great-grandfather, a solicitor, had settled in Guadeloupe in 1815. His grandfather and father were also solicitors; his father was also a member of the City Council. The Leger family owned two plantations, one of coffee (La Joséphine) and the other of sugar (Bois-Debout).
In 1897, Hégésippe Légitimus, the first native Guadeloupan elected president of the Guadeloupe General Council, took office with a vindictive agenda towards colonists. The Leger family returned to metropolitan France in 1899 and settled in Pau. The young Alexis felt like an expatriate, and spent much of his time hiking, fencing, riding horses, and sailing in the Atlantic. He was awarded the baccalaureate with honors, and began studying law at the University of Bordeaux. When his father died in 1907, the resulting strain on his family's finances led Leger to interrupt temporarily his studies, but he eventually completed his degree in 1910.
Supper time in the hole
Supper time in the hole
I shame my family, shame my home
Supper time
Old Saint John on death row
He's just waiting for a pardon
Old Saint John on death row
He's just waiting for a pardon
Old Saint John on death row
He's just waiting for a pardon
Old Saint John on death row
He's just waiting
All the white boys in the stay pressed slacks
They're home for the summer from college
Staying out late, getting rowdy at the bar
And looking for trouble uptown
They come up my block, 'bout 5 or 6 of them
Smashing their bottles in the gutter
Yelling all kinds of obscenities
About woman and God and law
Another supper time in the hole
Supper time
I shame my family, shame my home
Supper time
A young girl turned the corner with a clerk dress on
That girl was my sister
Just got off the night shift at Pennington's Place
Just wanna go home and get some sleep
Butch grabbed her by the waist with the caffeine eyes
The hands all [Incomprehensible]
I picked up a brick from my papa's front yard
And threw it at the tallest boy's face
Well, blood was streaming like a well that sprung
I couldn't believe what I had just done
Well, the other boy ran and this one stayed
On the ground and he would never move again
Old Saint John on death row
He's just waiting for a pardon
Old Saint John on death row
He's just waiting for a pardon
All us boys on death row
We're just waiting for a pardon
All us boys on death row
Yours truly on trial, I testify
I gotta keep on running 'til the well runs dry
Yours truly on trial, I testify
I gotta keep on running 'til the well runs
Yours truly on trial, I testify
I gotta keep on running 'til the well runs dry
Yours truly on trial, I testify