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Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Category Archives: Quebec Art

Winter has come …

15 Tuesday Nov 2022

Posted by michelinewalker in Quebec Art, Sharing

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Clarence Gagnon artist, New Computer, sharing

Baie-Saint-Paul, par Clarence Gagnon

Winter has come. I was 78 in July, but the photo at the foot of this post was taken on 19 September 2022. I expected to have many wrinkles by the age of 78, but I don’t. However, I have aged. My skin is rather transparent, and my lips are thinner. Moreover, my memory fails me and when night falls, past events leap upon me. I regret some of the decisions I have made.

New Computer

But the business of the day is the purchase of a computer. I needed help choosing the right computer. So, I am in Magog where my friend John helped me to choose a good computer and set it up. I should have replaced the former computer a year ago, but a Covid vaccine caused pericarditis and gout.

These are difficult years: Covid, Putin invading Ukraine, inflation, and a devastatingly sick climate!

The Language Laws

I will no longer discuss Quebec’s language laws. I had to speak English during the decades I lived outside Quebec, but I was in a very friendly environment, and the difficulties I faced were not related to my mother tongue.

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Colonization and the Revenge of the Cradles (11 January 2014)
  • Maria Chapdelaine (26 January 2012)

Sources and Resources

Clarence Gagnon EN

—ooo—

Love to everyone 💕

Clarence Gagnon, L’Hiver (I have used this video previously.)

© Micheline Walker
15 November 2022
WordPress

Micheline, 19 September 2022

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Mistakes and a Serenade

03 Monday Oct 2022

Posted by michelinewalker in Language Laws, Quebec Art

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Language Laws, mistakes

Once again, I made mistakes. I’m ageing and, perhaps, exhausted.

I wrote “learning English as a second language” instead of “learning French as a second language.”

My text should read:

In this respect, I would like to repeat that, in Quebec, learning French as a second language should be in the curriculum. Moreover, I would not prevent French-speaking students from enrolling in an English language CEGEP, a two-year post-secondary programme, or similar institutions. Finally, I would recommend improvements in teaching French as a mother tongue.

Micheline Bourbeau-Walker was my name for a very long time.

—ooo—

Kindest regards to all of you 💕

Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, The Magog River, 1913

© Micheline Walker
2 October 2022
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Language Laws in Quebec: la Patrie littéraire, the Literary Homeland

02 Sunday Oct 2022

Posted by michelinewalker in Official Languages (Canada), Quebec, Quebec Art, Quebec literature

≈ Comments Off on Language Laws in Quebec: la Patrie littéraire, the Literary Homeland

Tags

Anamnèse, Canadian Parents for French, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Francophonie, French in School Curriculum, La Patrie littéraire, Lord Durham's Report, Official Languages, Quebec language laws

Marc-Aurèle de Foy Susor-Coté, Coin de mon village, Arthabaska, 1914 (Musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada. NGA)

—ooo—

I made changes to my last post. There were little mistakes, “surface errors.” I’m ageing. However, I would like to add that, in my opinion, Canadians have not paid sufficient attention to the findings of the Royal Commission of Bilingualism and Biculturalism (1963-1969) and Canada’s Official Languages Act. It was passed in 1969 and amended in 1988. The effort provided by Canadian Parents for French has led to the creation of French immersion schools. Canadian Parents for French is an organization that needs members and support.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms may be the better tool for promoting bilingual education. It guarantees minority rights when numbers warrant. I suspect that l’École acadienne de Pomquet owes its existence to Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In this respect, I would like to repeat that, in Quebec, learning French as a second language should be in the curriculum. Moreover, I would not prevent French-speaking students from enrolling in an English language CEGEP, a two-year post-secondary programme, or similar institutions. Finally, I would recommend improvements in the teaching of French as a mother tongue.

Moreover, Harvard’s new course on North America’s francophonie may prove an excellent initiative. Canada’s founding nations were France and Britain, but the French opened the North American continent. Francophonie overrides the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. It also overrides the expulsion of the Acadians, many of whom live in Louisiana. Moreover, 900,000 French Canadians moved to the United States between 1830 and 1930. They could not find work in Canada. They may no longer speak French, but they are part of North America’s francophonie.

La Patrie littéraire, the Literary Homeland

I could not write my book on Molière during my last sabbatical leave because I was asked to prepare two new courses: Animals in Literature and a course on contemporary Quebec literature. That year, however, I lectured in Stuttgart, Germany. One of my lectures was on la patrie littéraire, the literary homeland. In his Report on the Rebellions of 1837-1838, Lord Durham stated that French Canadians had no history and no literature.

They are a people with no history, and no literature. The literature of England is written in a language which is not theirs; literature which their language renders familiar to them, is that of a nation from which they have been separated by eighty years of a foreign rule, and still more by those changes which the Revolution and its consequences have wrought in the whole political, moral and social state of France.

Lord Durham’s Report on the Affairs of British North America, Sir C.P. Lucas, K.C.B., K.C.M.G. pp. 294-295 (Internet Archive)

I have noted elsewhere that denigration of French Canadians sparked the creation of two literary schools: l’École littéraire de Québec and l’École littéraire de Montréal. Moreover, François-Xavier Garneau wrote an Histoire du Canada depuis sa découverte jusqu’à nos jours.

As my sabbatical drew to a close I wrote an article entitled La Patrie littéraire: errance et résistance, published under my professional identity, Micheline Bourbeau-Walker. Bourbeau is my mother’s family name. La Patrie littéraire is a term used by René Dionne in his section of Gilles Marcotte‘s Anthologie de la littérature Québécoise. It is a fine description of the works written by French Canada’s two early literary schools. French Canada became a literary homeland. Its writers were French Canadians.

My contribution to this concept is an analysis of Antonine Maillet‘s Pélagie-la-Charrette, the above-mentioned La Patrie littéraire: errance et résistance. Pélagie-la-Charrette is a novel which earned its author, Antonine Maillet, the prestigious Prix Goncourt 1979. The novel features Pélagie, the narrator, and a group of Acadians travelling up the east coast of the United States pulling a cart, la charrette. They are returning to Acadie. Pélagie presents her characters as “the son of” or “the daughter of:” le fils à or la fille à: “Bélonie à Bélonie,” providing a lineage for her characters. Our ancestors are larger than we are. They validate us. So, Pélagie-la-Charrette is an anamnèse and a creation of things past. The term anamnèse is used in medicine where it lists the medical antecedents of a patient, but Pélagie-la-Charette is also une anamnèse. Pélagie builds a past.

I am mentioning la patrie littéraire because much of the literature produced by members of the Quebec and Montreal literary schools gave an identity to French Canada. Pamphile Lemay translated Henry Wadsworth Longfellow‘s Évangéline, a Tale of Acadie. Évangéline is a fictional character, but she lives forever. Historian Mona Ozouf also created une patrie littéraire: Récits d’une Patrie littéraire (Paris, Fayard), the literary works of women writers.

I will close here, concluding, first, that French should be in the curriculum in Quebec’s English-language schools and that the teaching of French as a mother tongue could be revised. I also wish to emphasize that a nation may be une patrie littéraire. French Canada will always be a sum of its literary works and other achievements.

—ooo—

My kindest regards to all of you. 💕

Alan Mills sings Un Canadien errant
Marc-Aurèle de Foy Susor-Coté L’Automne (Pinterest)

© Micheline Bourbeau-Walker
2 October 2022
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Do not Blame the Vaccine

23 Thursday Dec 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Covid-19, Quebec Art, Sharing

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Clarenge Gagnon, Laurentian Village, Pericarditis, The Vaccine

La Messe de Minuit par Clarence Gagnon, 1933 (WikiArt.org)

—ooo—

My last post may have confused certain readers, which is very sad. I was fully vaccinated but, during a visit to an emergency room, I was diagnosed with Pericarditis. Pericarditis and Myocarditis may be caused by a vaccine, including the vaccine protecting us from Covid-19. I would like to make it very clear that I was vaccinated against Covid-19 too early for the vaccine to be associated with the onset of Pericarditis or Myocarditis. Moreover, my diagnosis was not clear. Therefore, my illness was not associated with the vaccine against the Covid-19 virus.

During two visits to an emergency room in Sherbrooke and Magog, I was diagnosed with inflamed muscles in the rib cage and with a degree of deterioration of my left shoulder. The pain goes from the shoulder to the wrist. Doctors now suspect a musculoskeletal condition. I caught the H1N1 virus 46 years ago and never recovered. It caused Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). Although my heart still feels as though it was squeezed by a powerful hand, I suspect a mere continuation of ME/CFS.

In short, the vaccine did not cause Pericarditis.

Please listen to Dr Fauci, the CDC, the WHO, and top doctors in various countries. Since the beginning of this crisis, the words of politicians have been deemed truer than the words of experts.

—ooo—

Above, we see Clarence Gagnon’s depiction of Midnight Mass. Traditionally, Quebecers used mass as the weekly get-together. Christmas was no exception. They then walked home for the réveillon.

Kindest regards to everyone 💕

Clarence Gagnon Intermezzi Brahms
Laurentian Village by Clarence Gagnon (WikiArt.org)

© Micheline Walker
23 December 2021
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Medicine in Quebec (2)

24 Wednesday Nov 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Medicine in Quebec, Quebec Art, Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Arthabaska, Language Laws, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor Coté, Medicine in Quebec

Nature morte avec oignons par Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté (Fine Arts Canada)

—ooo—

The above is a copy of a Susor-Coté of still life entitled Nature morte avec oignons (Still life with onions). It is the work of Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, a prominent Canadian artist and a friend of my grandfather’s family. The legend goes that my grandfather met my grandmother when she was an employee of Suzor-Coté. She was an artist. Would that I could interview her. She died many years ago.

Medicine in Quebec

I have gone to a hospital emergency room five times. I did so whenener I felt I would go into cardiac arrest because my heart was queezed as in a vice and my blood pressurce was climbing rapidly. I am suffering from pericarditis, from inflamed muscles in the rib cage as well as a musculoskeletal condition on the left side of the rib cage including a damaged schoulder and pain from the shoulder to the fingers. Using a computer is well nigh impossible, but I will try to carry on as soon as I can use my left arm again. I am left handed.  

My visits to Emergency Rooms gave me the opportunity to see that medicine in Quebec was facing great difficulty. At the time of the Quiet Revolution, a prosperous Quebec planned to be a Welfare State (un État-Providence). Canada could be described as a Welfare State. It should be noted that Welfare States cannot sustain their programmes without levying taxes, nor can Welfare States afford extremely high fees. When Quebec declared it would be unilingual, Bill 22 (1974), and passed Bill 101, the Charter of the French Language (1977), affluent English-speaking citizens of Montreal left Quebec. I may be wrong, but I believe Quebec’s status as a unilingual province inside a bilingual Canada and ensuing laws caused well-to-do English-speaking Quebecers to leave. There cannot be a unilingual province in a bilingual Canada. It makes no sense.

My visits to the Emergency Room in Magog’s hospital provided me with an opportunity to witness what  could be the impending breakdown of the medical system in Quebec. For instance, it surprised me not to be asked to remove my earrings and necklace when X-Rays were performed. Only one radiologist asked me to take off my jewellery. I could not lift my arms, so he helped me. I was also surprised that very scant attention was given to the severe pain I felt. If my mother had been subjected to this much pain at the age of 77, I do not think she would have survived. I have aged more slowly.

Yet, my worst experience was watching an old lady who had taken her number and was waiting her turn. At one point, she went to the wicket to ask when she would be seen. She was told that she would have to wait for her number and her name to be called. She sorrowly returned to her chair. Never in my life had I seen so immensely sad a face. What, in Canada? There are no doctors in Magog. The clinic closed when the doctors retired. If one is unwell, one must go to a hospital Emergency Room, take a number, and then wait, however dire one’s needs.

Leaving Quebec

It could be that some doctors will attempt to leave Quebec, but one wonders whether doctors who do not hold a Bachelor of Science degree would be hired elsewhere. French-language universities do not require a Bachelor of Science degree for admission to a medical school. Future doctors spend two years in a Cegep: Grades XII and XIII, and then enter medical school. Yet, there are excellent doctors in Quebec, but many, if not most, are good technicians. They know how to send a patient for a test and probably count on the test to determine a diagnostic. They also have a book listing medications. As well, outside Quebec, a pregnant woman may be delivered by her obstetrician. In Quebec, one goes to a humble birthing-room, however complicated the pregnancy and childbirth. 

I should also note that when a patient enters a hospital, he or she will not be treated by his or her doctor. Doctors do not leave their office. I have already mentioned that medicine is more successful if there is a trusting relationship between a doctor and his or her patients. One must be able to reach one’s doctor if a crisis occurs, such as the death of a child. There is no center in my depiction of medicine in Quebec.  

Premier Legault

Quebec’s Premier François Legault is trying to get doctors to work a little more, but they are protected by powerful syndicates and command very large salaries. I fear the premier will not succeed. It has been about fifty years since doctors worked under the best possible conditions. 

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/legault-threatens-sanctions-as-he-loses-patience-with-quebec-s-family-doctors-1.5640251

I do not know what caused my sudden heath problems. It could be solitude and my not finding help to remove books from my apartment and settle comfortably. It has been a very stressful time in my life. 

I wish to thank you for being my community. I hope to continue operating my weblog, but I will not be at the computer for as many hours as I used to. Lying down and using the swimming pool will now be more important. I will also require help performing household tasks. Everything has to be simplified.  

Love to everyone  💕

Suzor-Coté (FR)
Galerie Eric Klinkhoff, Canadian Art Dealer & Gallery in Montreal
M.A. Suzor-Coté, R.C.A. (1869-1937)
“Still Life with Lilies”, 1894
Oil on canvas 25.1/2  x 32 in.  (SOLD)
(Galerie Eric Klinkhoff, Montreal)

© Micheline Walker
24 November 2021
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Chronicling COVID-19

25 Wednesday Mar 2020

Posted by michelinewalker in Canadian art, Canadian wilderness, Music in Canada, Pandemic, Quebec Art

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Arrogance, Covid-19, Early Music, Hank Knox, Quebec lockdown, Self-Isolation

133cfc7f9aa5492d9b9da3943c7c99be_18

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

My posts are delayed because of essential business. Quebec is closed.

My main meal comes from meals-on-wheels. As I was going to pick it up, wearing protective gear, I bumped into an assembly of people who doubted we should take authorities seriously. They were not standing at a distance from one another and I saw a person coming out of the swimming pool room.

I didn’t think I had it in me to transform myself into the manager of the building. It was an incredible moment. What I said and wrote in emails was, basically,

disperse immediately and do not let anyone into the building. If something is delivered, it stays in the lobby and someone rings your apartment. Three apartments are for sale. Real Estate is not an essential service. No one comes to visit apartments. If a rule is broken, I’ll call the police, the RCMP (Mounted Police), la GRC (Gendarmerie royale canadienne)  …

This morning I saw a sign asking people not to use the swimming pool.

Our worst enemies are the people who are too arrogant to obey the law. They don’t know that their freedom ends where the freedom of others begin. Only food, medication and the mail can be delivered.

I then had a conversation with a friend who is a postmaster. Mailmen will not ask you to sign if there is a delivery. That is contact. Covid rests on surfaces, which may include the mail.

One must also realize that there is very little medical help. I often tell people that if they wish to be well treated, they should go to the vet’s office. They have to learn medicine carefully as animals do not speak, except “en son langage.”

I am embedding music played by Hank Knox, a member, by marriage, of Sir Ernest MacMillan‘s family. My dear friend Andrea, whom I lost to cancer recently, was Sir Ernest’s niece. I knew the family but not closely, except for Andrea. We became friends when David and I rented the lower floor of her house.

David had found employment in Toronto. We were in a hotel looking for a home. David drove through streets he knew I would like. He saw a sign on a big tree and Andrea standing outside. He learned that she loved music and cats. So David said he would pick me up because he was certain I wanted to live in that house and that a friendship would grow. I must phone Betsy. She sent me harpsichord music.

https://www.mcgill.ca/music/hank-knox

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Hank+Knox&&view=detail&mid=4484F90DC0AD59DEDB0C4484F90DC0AD59DEDB0C&&FORM=VDRVRV

barns-1926

Barns by A. Y. Jackson, 1926 (The Group of Seven) (WikiArt)

© Micheline Walker
25 March 2020
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The Last Few Days: Details

12 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Québec Songs, Quebec Art, Sharing

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Claude Léveillée, Gilles Vigneault, Jean Paul Lemieux, Jean-Pierre Ferland, La Capricieuse, Le Vieux Soldat canadien, les Ursulines, Mon Pays, Raymond Lévesque, Robert Charlebois

les-ursulines

Les Ursulines, Jean-Paul Lemieux, Wikiart

It’s Sunday, which remains a sacred day for me. Other days serve different purposes and have an origin. Saturday is Saturn as in Saturnalia, a Roman festival taking place on the day of the longest night: Christmas. Humanity has always cherished symbols, but these change from culture to culture. They attach a story to things otherwise “ordinary.”

Jean-Paul Lemieux

To decorate my post, I chose Jean-Paul Lemieux (18 November 1904 – 7 December 1990) who lived in Berkeley, California for several years. His family may have wished to escape cold winters. He and Leclerc were born the same year and were good persons. Lemieux returned to Québec, despite the cold, the snow, various ice storms and numerous heat waves.

Félix Leclerc

Félix Leclerc (2 August 1914 – 8 August 1988), was born in La Tuque, Quebec and studied at the University of Ottawa until the Great Depression. There was no money. He then found work in radio stations, as speaker or writer. In 1939, he was employed by Ici Radio-Canada, the French counterpart of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the CBC. He may have written radio dramas, which my father did, at approximately the same time in the history of Quebec.

After the war, Félix Leclerc, and his guitar, went to France where he took courses. He met kindred spirits, such as Boris Vian. In 1950, at the age of 36, he was discovered by French impresario Jacques Canetti. His daughter says that he divided his life between l’île d’Orléans, where he owned a house, and Paris.

In Le Tour de l’île, Leclerc also mentions a blue-eyed grandfather standing guard, which reminds me of Octave Crémazie‘s poem, entitled « Le Vieux Soldat canadien » . The first French ship to sail down the Saint Lawrence after the “Conquest” was La Capricieuse, in 1855.[1]

Other Quebec Singer-Songwriters

Félix Leclerc was the first of a group of Quebec singer-songwriters. These include Raymond Lévesque who wrote “Quand les hommes vivront d’amour,” Claude Léveillée  who wrote songs for Édith Piaf, and also wrote Frédéric (1961), is also a major singer-songwriter. So are Jean-Pierre Ferland, the composer of Fais du feu dans la cheminée, Robert Charlebois, the author of Ordinaire, and Diane Dufresne. The best performers were Monique Leyrac and Pauline Julien. (Please click on the title of songs I have chosen to hear it.)

However, the most celebrated Québecois singer-songwriter is Gilles Vigneault. Vigneault wrote: “Mon Pays.”

Independence

You will have noticed that Leclerc mentions independence. As paradoxical as this may seem, I believe Québécois have their own country, albeit informally. But, their country is in Canada, where it is probably a safer and more stable place than outside Canada. Québec has yet to sign the Patriated Constitution (1982).

Lemieux’ Ursulines

Les Ursulines are a teaching order founded by Marie de l’Incarnation (née Marie Guyart), in 1639. The Ursulines’ main monastery, built in Quebec City, is the oldest institution of learning for women in North America. As a religious order, the Ursulines were founded in Italy.

—ooo—

I have worked on the Battle of Quebec and grouped the lines differently. Folklore has its rules, but the “Battle of Quebec” is a challenge. Lines vary in length.  The French lines would be called “octaves.” The words “La Danaé” would be at the end of each octave.The English lines (4 stanzas containing 4 lines) seem a response.

La Récréation (playtime)

Before the Révolution tranquille, teachers were nuns and school girls wore a navy blue pinafore dress over a white blouse.

Related image

Jean-Paul Lemieux, 1957 (Galerie d’Art Michel Bigué)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Le peintre Jean-Paul Lemieux. Le musicien Philippe Lauters.

RELATED ARTICLE

  • La Capricieuse & Crémazie’s “Old Soldier” (25 April 2012) ♥

Sources and Resources

  • Le Vieux Soldat canadien is a Wikisource publication

_________________________

[1] Jacques Portes, “Visite de la Capricieuse en 1855: point tournant des relations France-Canada,” l’Encyclopédie du Patrimoine culturel de l’Amérique française

 

 

 

 

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Félix Leclerc chante “Le Tour de l’île”

11 Saturday Aug 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Québec Songs, Quebec Art

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Félix Leclerc, Jean Paul Lemieux, L'Ile d'Orléans, Le Tour de l'île, Paroles, Translation

Québec, vue de l’île d’Orléans, Jean-Paul Lemieux, 1963 (Wikiart)

La Récréation, Jean-Paul Lemieux, 1961 (Wikiart)

Paroles de la chanson « Le Tour de l’île »

Félix Leclerc (1914-1988)

Pour supporter     To bear
Le difficile     The difficult
Et l’inutile      And the useless
Y a l’tour de l’île     There’s the island to go round
Quarante-deux milles     Forty-two miles (67 km)
De choses tranquilles     Of things quiet
Pour oublier     To forget
Grande blessure     Gaping wounds
Dessous l’armure     ‘neath the shield
Eté, hiver     Summer, winter
Y a l’tour de l’île     There’s the island to go round
L’Ile d’Orléans      L’île d’Orléans

L’Île c’est comme Chartres     The island’s like Chartres
C’est haut et propre     It’s high and clean
Avec des nefs      With naves
Avec des arcs     With arches
Des corridors     Corridors
Et des falaises     And cliffs

En février     In February
La neige est rose     The snow is pink
Comme chair de femme     Like a woman’s flesh
Et en juillet     And in July
Le fleuve est tiède     The river’s tepid
Sur les battures     On the sandbars
Au mois de mai     In the month of May
A marée basse     At low tide
Voilà les oies     Here come the geese
Depuis des siècles     For centuries
Au mois de juin     In the month of June
Parties les oies     The geese have gone
Mais nous les gens     But we the people
Les descendants     Descendants of people
De La Rochelle     From La Rochelle
Présents tout l’temps     We’re here all the time
Surtout l’hiver     In winter mostly
Comme les arbres      Like trees

Mais c’est pas vrai      But it’s not true
Ben oui c’est vrai      Well, yes it’s true
Écoute encore     Listen again

Maisons de bois     Wooden houses
Maisons de pierre     Stone houses
Clochers pointus     Pointed bell towers
Et dans les fonds     And in the back
Des pâturages     Grazing fields
De silence     Of silence
Des enfants blonds     Blond children
Nourris d’azur     Fed by the sky
Comme les anges     Like angels
Jouent à la guerre     Play war
Imaginaire     War imaginary  

Imaginons     Let’s imagine
L’Ile d’Orléans    L’île d’Orléans
Un dépotoir     A dump
Un cimetière     A cemetery
Parcs à vidanges     Parks of sewage
Boîte à déchets    A box of waste
U. S. parkings     U. S. parking
On veut la mettre     They want to put her
En mini-jupe     In a mini-skirt
And speak English     And speak English
Faire ça à elle     Do that to her
L’Ile d’Orléans     L’île d’Orléans
Notre fleur de lys     Our fleur de lys

Mais c’est pas vrai     But it’s not true
Ben oui c’est vrai     Well, yes it’s true
Raconte encore     Tell me again

Sous un nuage     Under a cloud
Près d’un cours d’eau     Near a stream
C’est un berceau     It’s a cradle
Et un grand-père     And a blue-eyed
Au regard bleu     Grandfather
Qui monte la garde     Stands guard
Il sait pas trop     He doesn’t quite know
Ce qu’on dit dans     What they say
Les capitales     In large cities (capitals)
L’œil vers le golfe     Looking towards the gulf
Ou Montréal     Or Montréal
Guette le signal     He watches for the signal

Pour célébrer    To celebrate
L’indépendance     Independence
Quand on y pense     When one thinks about it
C’est-y en France     Is it in France
C’est comme en France     It’s like France
Le tour de l’île    Round the island
Quarante-deux milles     Forty-two miles
Comme des vagues    Like waves
Les montagnes     Mountains
Les fruits sont mûrs    The fruit is ripe
Dans les vergers     In the orchards
De mon pays     Of my land

Ça signifie     It means
L’heure est venue     The hour has come
Si t’as compris     If you understood

Related image

Jeune Fille, Jean-Paul Lemieux, 1957 (Galerie d’Art Michel Bigué)

© Micheline Walker
11 August 2018
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