Une Tempête

Une Tempête ("A tempest") is a 1969 play by Aimé Césaire.

Dialogue

 * as translated by Richard Miller (1985, 1992)

ARIEL: Poor Caliban, you're doomed. You know that you aren't the stronger, you'll never be the stronger. What good will it do you to struggle? CALIBAN: And what about you? What good has your obedience done you, your Uncle Tom patience and your sucking up to him. The man's just getting more demanding and despotic day by day.



ARIEL: He's stronger than you are. I'm in a good position to know just what he's got in his arsenal. CALIBAN: The stronger? How do you know that? Weakness always has a thousand means and cowardice is all that keeps us from listing them.



ARIEL: I don't believe in violence. CALIBAN: What do you believe in, then? In cowardice? In giving up? In kneeling and groveling? That's it, someone strikes you on the right cheek and you offer the left. Someone kicks you on the left buttock and you turn the right ... that way there's no jealousy. Well, that's not Caliban's way...