? Beware of Pick Pockets and Loose Women | Main | Someone get the CHRC on the phone ?
January 05, 2009
Ô douce France
Lest anyone doubt I was serious in declaring this to be France Appreciation Week @ The Flea. If things go badly, there will still be a country called France - for a time - but it will not be the France we know. And we shall miss her.
I am uncertain of the history and provenance of the following piece. I believe it to be the hymn of the paratroop regiment, by whatever name it is called and no matter how formally they have adopted the song. I would be grateful if a Flea reader better educated in these matters might enlighten us. Whatever it meant to the composer, it is a beautiful piece in itself.
The lyrics: From my limited googling, the writer was Cpt J.E. Lamaze at Saïgon in 1946. Or possibly 1948.
O douce France,
Mon beau pays,
Lieu de mon enfance,
Du bonheur, des chansons et des rires,
Ta souvenance berce ma dolence
D'un chant d'espérance.
Hélas sur cette terre
Ou je suis exilé,
Mon ame est solitaire
Et mon coeur désolé.
J'attend chaque jour
Le moment du retour.
Ici ton cher visage
Eclaire nos destins.
Pour garder bon courage,
On pense aux clairs matins
Qui chassaient toujours
L'ombre des mauvais jours.
Posted by Ghost of a flea at January 5, 2009 06:53 AM
