Friday, January 28, 2022

Julos Beaucarne - In the memory of roses


Original Title: "De mémoire de rose"
Year: 1975

In the memory of roses
Never has a garderner been seen dieing
If just a pause
Can't be sufficient for you
Madam, leave
The time stretch
Without cursing it, be patient
Let yourself slide in the light wind
Patience, be patient

If love flies away
Blame only yourself
You ran away from school
For the bed of a King
If her white veil
Is no more than a fog
Do not hang yourself from the branch
As soon as it'll be dark
Do not hang yourself from the branch
As soon as it'll be dark, because

In the memory of roses
Never has a garderner been seen dieing
If just a pause
Can't be sufficient for you
Madam, leave
The time stretch
Without cursing it, be patient
Let yourself slide in the light wind
Patience, be patient

Keep deep inside
Deep inside yourself
A void, a place
Behind the feasts
Where to lay your head
In the wind of the evening
Rock those old dreams
Even if it's dark
Rock those old dreams
Even if it's dark, because

In the memory of roses
Never has a garderner been seen dieing
If just a pause
Can't be sufficient for you
Madam, leave
The time stretch
Without cursing it, be patient
Let yourself slide in the light wind
Patience, be patient

Friday, January 14, 2022

Georges Brassens - In the woods of my heart


Original Title: "Au bois de mon coeur"
Year: 1957
In the woods of Clamart there are some little flowers,
there are some little flowers,
there are some friends in the woods of my heart,
in the woods of my heart.

At the back of my courtyard I'm famous
I'm famous
for having a disreputable heart
A disreputable heart

In the woods of Vincennes there are some little flowers,
There are some little flowers,
there are some friends in the woods of my heart,
in the woods of my heart.

When my cask runs out of wine
When my cask runs out of wine
In my cask,
They aren't afraid of drinking my water,
Of drinking my water.

In the woods of Meudon there are some little flowers,
There are some little flowers,
There are friends in the woods of my heart,
In the woods of my heart.

They go with me to the town hall,
They go with me to the town hall,
To the town hall,
Everytime I get married,
That I get married.

In the woods of Saint-Cloud there are some little flowers,
There are some little flowers,
There are friends in the woods of my heart,
In the woods of my heart.

Every time I die faithfully,
Faithfully,
They follow my funeral procession,
My funeral procession.

Some little flowers
Some little flowers
In the woods of my heart
In the woods of my heart
Live:

Thursday, January 13, 2022

Léo Ferré - The loneliness


Original Title: "La solitude"
Year: 1971
I'm from a different country than yours, from another neighborhood, from another loneliness.
Today I invent myself some side roads.
I’m no longer local, I’m waiting for some mutants.
Biologically I’m working out with the idea
I made myself of Biology: I piss, I ejaculate, I cry.
It’s of highest urgency for us to shape our ideas
as if they were manufactured objects.
I am ready to provide you with the molds. But...
The loneliness...
The loneliness...

The molds are made of a new texture, I'm warning you.
They were cast tomorrow morning.
If you haven’t from this very day the relative sentiment of your duration
It is futile to pass on to you, it's useless to look in front of you
Because the front is behind, night is day, and...
The loneliness...
The loneliness...

It’s of utmost urgency for our laundromats,
At street corners, to be as imperturbable as the stop lights or free way indicators
The cops of the detersive will show you the box
Where you'll be at liberty to wash what you believe to be your conscience
And which is nothing more but an dependency of the neurophilic computer
That is serving you as brain. And yet..
The loneliness...
The loneliness...

Despair is a superior form of the critique.
For the moment, we’ll call it: “happiness”
The words which you are using no longer being “the words”
But some sort of canal through which
The illiterate people are easing their conscience. But...
The loneliness...
The loneliness...

We will talk about the civil code later
For the moment, I would like to codify the uncodifiable.
I would like to measure your monarch butterfly democracies.
I would like to insert myself into the absolute void and become the unspoken,
The never happened, the non-virgin by lack of lucidity.
Lucidity is located in my pants!
In my pants!

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Julos Beaucarne - Elskamp - Oh Claire Suzanne Adolphine


Text: Max Elskamp
Year: 1967

My father discovered the poem by Max Elskamp and directly went over to Julos so that he'd put it in music as it was about their hometown. They both spent the night creating the song. Julos ended up publishing an extended play with four Max Elskamp poems.
Oh Claire Suzanne Adolphine
Oh my mother from the Ecaussinnes
Now so far away who is asleep
Do you remember the summer days ?

Over there in August, when we were going
To visit our parents
In their castle of Belle-Tête²
Built in stones from our region

And who then made celebration
To you, their daughter, as well as to us
In this sweet Wallonia
Of clear summer, over there, in Hainaut

Where we were hearing some harmony
Like a voice coming from above
The noise of the cisels on the stones
And who sang under the hammers

Like bells ringing in the air
Or sea in the distance raising her waters
While like thunders
Were passing the trains under the elm trees

Oh my mother from the Ecaussines
It's your blood which speaks in me
And my soul which confides itself
In You, and of love, and of faith

Because you were to me like Mary
Even though I am not Jesus
And when you were gone
I knew I had lost everything

Oh Claire Suzanne Adolphine
Oh my mother from the Ecaussinnes
Now so far away who is asleep
Do you remember the summer days ?
²Belle-Tête would mean "Pretty head" although I couldn't find trace of such a castle

Léo Ferré - You never say anything

Original Title: " Tu ne dis jamais rien " Year: 1971 I see the world a bit like one sees the unbelievable This what the unbeli...