What are you listening to now?

Nikita
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"Never interrupt an enemy who's making a mistake." Napoléon Bonaparte

13 years 4 months ago - 13 years 3 months ago #151 by Nikita

Replied by Nikita on topic Re: What are you listening to now?

Hey mates,

It's a long time since i didn't put some local title. So here's one, by the band Soldat Louis (Soldier Louis), native from Lorient. The title is C'est un pays (It's a country) and, as his name suggest, it speaks about Brittany of yesterday, of today and of tomorrow, between love and revolt, between pride and suffering.

A title which i like and which contains a beautiful part of truth, even for me, Breton only by adoption…

In addition, some nice pictures of this country, for maybe understand why Brittany is an important touristic destination…

Available on Deezer

PS: I try to provide the original lyrics, corrected by me in a standard French language, by avoiding as much as possible abbreviations and slang, as well as an English translation made by me and Reverso... thus absolutely perfect, why to specify it...?

Soldier Louis - It's a country

C'est un pays, fallait que je t'en parle

It's a country, needed to talk you about it

Car je l'ai dans le coeur comme tu crois pas

Because i have it in the heart as you believe not

Quand je suis pas dedans c'est pas normal

When i'm not inside it's not normal

A croire que le monde n'existe pas.

To believe that the world doesn't exist.

C'est pas fait pour les cons qui râlent

It's not made for the idiots who grumble

Après la pluie ou je sais pas quoi

Because of the rain or i don't know what

Moi je l'aime mieux sous un ciel qui chiale

I prefer it under a sky which blubbers

Balayé par un vent de noroît.

Swept by a northwest wind.

Là-bas c'est la mer qui donne

Over there it's the sea which gives

Et qui reprend quand ça lui plaît

And which takes back when that pleases her

Et ce putain de glas qui résonne

And this bloody knell which resounds

Quand elle a repris tout le monde le sait

When she have taken back everybody knows it

Là-bas si c'est pas pour ta pomme

Over there if it's not for you

On te le fera savoir vite fait

We shall let it know to you very quickly

Ils en ont vu passer des tonnes

They saw passing by tons

De colons et voire même d'Anglais.

Of colonists and even Englishmen.

Et puis parfois toute la violence

And also sometimes all the violence

Qui fait lever le poing sur la place

Which makes raise the fist on the square

Qui rappelle qu'il y a méfiance

Which reminds that there is distrust

Après la langue on vise la race

After the language we aim at the race

Qu'elle s'est pas trop gênée la France

That France were not ashamed too much

Pour lui mettre les pieds dans la crasse

To put her feet in the grime

Des fois que l'idée d'indépendance

In case the idea of independence

Ne laisserait pas vraiment de glace

Would not really leave unmoved

Car ça n'aime pas les conquérants

Because that does not love the conquerors

À la cupidité vénale

With a venal greed

Depuis qu'une Duchesse encore enfant

Since a Duchess still child

S'est fait mettre d'une manière royale

Was fucked in a royal way ¹

Sa liberté c'est l'océan

Its freedom is the ocean

Qui la nuit va rejoindre les étoiles

Which go to join the stars at night

Et sa terre qui a fait serment

And its earth which made oath

D'être à jamais terre nationale

To be forever a national earth ²

C'est aux cris des oiseaux de mer

It's by the shouts of seabirds

Quand ils reviennent près du rivage

When they return near the bank

Que j'ai compris qu'il y a l'enfer

That i understood that there's a hell

Mais que ça vaut toujours mieux qu'une cage

But that's always better than a cage

Et même quand chaque jour est une guerre

And even when every day is a war

Qui ne se lit que sur les visages

Which is read only on faces

Ici on ne parle pas de sa misère

Here we don't speak about its misery

Et encore moins de son courage

And even less about its courage

Si j'en rajoute un peu, tant pis

If i overdo it a little, too bad

Au début je t'ai bien dit que je l'aime

At the beginning i well said to you that i love it

Dans tout ce merdier ce putain de pays

In all this muck-up, this bloody country

Me tient plus chaud que la gonzesse que je traîne

Holds me more warmly than the girl whom i drag

J'ai pas fini de l'ouvrir pour lui

I'm not stopping to open my mouth for him

Pour lui je filerais même des châtaignes

For him i would even give some clouts

Au premier salaud qui le détruit

To the first bastard who destroys him

Ou qui voudrait lui remettre des chaînes

Or who would like to put him back some chains

¹ & ² : Allusion to duchess Anne of Brittany , whose marriage in 1491, at 14 years old, with king of France Charles VIII and next with king Louis XII, will connect the duchy of Brittany, until then independent, with the kingdom of France.

Urf ! Well done Nik, you deserved a good glass of fresh cider

PS : Btw lads, did you know that it's by the will of Anne of Brittany to never charge a Breton for travelling on the Brittany territory that, even today, the highways in Brittany are free of toll...?

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Last edit: 13 years 3 months ago by Nikita. Reason: Added Deezer link

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Nikita
Offline
"Never interrupt an enemy who's making a mistake." Napoléon Bonaparte

13 years 4 months ago - 13 years 3 months ago #152 by Nikita

Replied by Nikita on topic Re: What are you listening to now?

Speakin' about Brittany, in another maybe more quiet way, a piece by Tri Yann, after a text by Morvan Lebesque, excerpt from Comment peut on être Breton, Essai sur la Démocratie française (How can we be Breton, essay about the French democracy).

Very sharp, very intelligent and very true... Well, at least, i think so...

Tri Yann - La découverte ou l'ignorance (The discovery or the ignorance)

Available on Deezer

Le breton est-il ma langue maternelle ? Non : je suis né à Nantes où on ne le parle pas... Suis-je même breton ? Vraiment je le crois. Mais de "pure race", qu'en sais-je et qu'importe ? ... Séparatiste ? Autonomiste ? Régionaliste ? Oui et non : différent . Mais alors vous ne comprenez plus. Qu'appelons nous être breton ? Et d'abord, pourquoi l'être ?

Français d'état civil, je suis nommé français, j'assume à chaque instant ma situation de français : mon appartenance à la Bretagne n'est en revanche qu'une qualité facultative que je puis parfaitement renier ou méconnaître. Je l'ai d'ailleurs fait. J'ai longtemps ignoré que j'étais breton... Français sans problème, il me faut donc vivre la Bretagne en surplus, ou, pour mieux dire, en conscience : si je perds cette conscience, la Bretagne cesse d'être en moi ; si tous les bretons la perdent, elle cesse absolument d'être. La Bretagne n'a pas de papiers. Elle n'existe que si à chaque génération des hommes se reconnaissent bretons. A cette heure, des enfants naissent en Bretagne. Seront-ils-bretons ? Nul ne le sait. A chacun, l'âge venu, la découverte ou l'ignorance...

Is Breton my mother tongue ? No: I am born in Nantes where it is not spoken... Am I even Breton ? Really I believe yes. But of "pure blood", I do not know and which importance ? ... Separatist ? Autonomist ? Regionalist ? Yes and no : different . But so you do not understand anymore. What do we call to be Breton ? And first , why to be a Breton ?

French of civil state, I am named French , I assume at every moment my situation of French : my belonging to the Brittany is only a facultative quality that I can perfectly deny or ignore . I in fact did it. I have during a long-time ignored that I was Breton... French without problem , I must live Brittany moreover , or , to better say, consciously : if I lose this conscious , Brittany stops to be in me; if all the Bretons lose her , she absolutely ceases to exist. Brittany has no papers. She exists only if at each generation men recognise themselves as Bretons. At this hour , children are born in Brittany. Will they be Bretons ? Nobody knows. To each, when age comes, the discovery or the ignorance...

An important point about Morvan Lebesque, extract from the French Wikipedia, a bit more precise about it than the English Wikipedia : I provide here my English translation :

Controversy and disgrace

Morvan Lebesque was a figure of the Breton identity; tribute a "Ballad" of Pierre-Jakez Hélias, a song of Glenmor, a song of Tri Yann, two street names pay him, a college school and the name of the Breton cultural agency. However, a recent controversy for its participation during the occupation at L'Heure Bretonne (The Breton Hour) and Je suis partout (I am everywhere), two collaborationists newspapers, is worth to him a fall in disgrace. About the name of the Breton cultural agency, Jean-Louis Jossic, deputy mayor of Nantes - And besides founder member of Tri Yann - will say " I was at the origin of the name but when we had doubts, we decided not to use it. We say just Breton cultural agency."

For these same reasons, February 26th, 2005, elected representatives of the City Council of city of Quimper (Finistère), after the intervention of the communist councillor Piero Rainero, decide not to give the name of Morvan Lebesque to the Pitre-Chevalier street, situated in the district of Kernoter.

As many in this time, he was maybe fooled by the nazi propaganda which assured to give the Bretons their autonomy if nazi regime came to power in France. French Wikipedia adds that he will always forbid himself from this period by putting forward his naivety and by assuring that he left [the newspaper] as soon as he noticed pro-nazi opinion of it. We also have to know that, as a country with strong regional identity, Brittany owned these troubled times a collaborationist militia called the Bezen Perrot , which was working with the nazis in order to reach the independance. I think that this precision was important and that it was necessary to be completely clear on this subject, what does not prevent me from considering this specific text as expressing the will to know and claim its roots and its culture, and i clearly say that, in my opinion, this will can exist without sharing any fascist or nazi ideology. (Added by me Nikita).