Before Aimé Césaire, only three French writers were given the honour of a state funeral: Victor Hugo, Paul Valéry, and Colette. Both Le Monde and Le Figaro point this out in their coverage of Césaire’s funeral on Sunday afternoon in Fort-de-France. Both newspapers have also posted galleries of images of the ceremonies.
Le Monde: “Fort-de-France se recueille lors des obsèques nationales d’Aimé Césaire”; gallery here.
Le Figaro: “La France rend hommage à Aimé Césaire”; gallery here.
Césaire himself chose the epitaph that will appear on his tomb; the final three lines of his poem “Calendrier lagunaire”:
La pression atmosphérique ou plutôt l'historique
agrandit démesurément mes maux
même si elle rend somptueux certains de mes mots
