Saturday, December 02, 2006
Mon Pays
Winter has hit with a vengeance in our neck of the woods. The great love-hate season has arrived. I can't help but think of the classic Gilles Vigneault song Mon Pays. Some call it a Quebecois anthem, but has there ever been a song that has said so much about Canada as a whole? I get teary-eyed just thinking of the lyrics.
Gilles Vigneault - Mon Pays
Mon pays [My Country]
Mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver
Mon jardin ce n'est pas un jardin, c'est la plaine
Mon chemin ce n'est pas un chemin, c'est la neige
Mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver
[My country is not a country, it's winter
My garden is not a garden, it's a plain
My road is not a road, it's snow
My country is not a country, it's winter]
Ou la neige au vent se marie
Dans ce pays de poudrerie
Mon pere a fait batir maison
Et je m'en vais etre fidele
A sa maniere, a son modele
La chambre d'amis sera telle
Qu'on viendra des autres saisons
Pour se batir a cote d'elle
[In the white ceremony
In which the wind to snow marries
In this country of powdery
My father had his house built
And I am going to be faithful
To his way, to his model
The guest room will be such
That we will bring the other seasons
To build next to it.]
posted by Mentok @ 9:56 p.m.,
10 Comments:
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At 10:51 p.m.,
FiL said...
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Er, how come the second verse looks like Sankskrit on my browser?
But I get your point. And thank you for not mocking us soft west coasters when we get all whiny over a mere foot of snow that thaws out three days later... -
At 11:12 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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For some hair-pulling reason, blogger doesn't want to display French characters for me. I've changed it for now to unaccented words just to get rid of that crazy Sanskrit. In the meantime, if anyone has suggestions for how to fix....
Whiny? Oh, I think we're all "whiny" about snow underneath it all. Why do you think so many Canadians retire to the coast? -
At 2:02 a.m.,
Bathroom Hippo said...
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So I went to that coin graphic site the other day...
All the sudden...pornography popups punch me in the face out of nowhere man!!! I'm all tapping on the mouse and pressin' ctrl alt del trying to figure out what's going on... Then I get a blue screen of death! "Formatting C: Drive" it tells me. Noooo!! Damn you Mentok!!!!
Then I woke up. There was a naked lady on there...but you know...nothing to be alarmed over. -
At 2:48 p.m.,
Rachel said...
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Awwww *wipes tears*
This is wonderful...
I hope this season is more love than hate. They saw snow as far west as Washington...Seattle???
Crazy stuff I say. At least we have FiL back from the electrical outage. But I hope you stay safe and warm out there in the country ;)
It is like 70 something degrees here with not a drop of moisture in the air....I am miserable.
As for the gobbely goop jargon...I think it has something to do with Unidcode or some shit...But I could be just spreading bad rumors. I think it is just a wonderful post with or without the french characters... -
At 5:12 p.m.,
said...
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I get teary eyed shoveling.I also seem to clutch my chest a lot..
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At 10:23 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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hippo - oops, yeah, should have warned about the nudie bit.
Rachel - "out there in the country?" Babe, I live in a city of a couple hundred thousand people. Granted it's not L.A., but we did host a Stones concert, you'll recall.
As for the love-hate, it was pretty much hate until today. It's easy to hate -30 C windchill slapping you in the face. But today the boys went to the sledding hill for the first time, and that's easy to love.
happy and blue - I have discovered the ultimate low-cost labour-saving device for snow-shovelling. It's called "children"! -
At 5:14 a.m.,
Rachel said...
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Babe? Did you have a death wish?
Just messing with ya. and yes it is easy to hate -30 degree weather but I can only imagine that as it has been dry and windy here for the last week.
Los Angeles population: Approx. 4 million, 2nd largest in the U.S.
Hey I am not knocking your city, and I didn't mean "country" as in no one around for miles I meant "country" as in harsh weather land. So chill out!
Oh right you are...hehehe ;-) -
At 4:00 p.m.,
Grumps said...
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Mentok - Here's a great diddy I found. The group is very Quebecois so the translation leaves something to be desired. The song rocks, if you like I could send you the mp3 sometime.
Saskatchewan
Les Trois Accords
En Français
Un beau matin
Je suis parti au loin
Aller mener mon troupeau
En ontario
J'ai laisser ma femme
En Saskatchewan
Je lui ai dit bientôt
Tu va voir un chapeau
Ça va être le mien
J'vais être au bout du chemin
Et tu vas dire voilà mon mari
Qui arrive de la prairie
Mais à mon retour
Mon bel amour
M'avait sacré là
Pour un gars de Régina
J'ai pris mon chapeau
Puis mon lasso
Et je noie ma peine
Dans les bars de la plaine
Saskatchewan
Tu m'as pris ma femme
Elle m'a crissé là
Pour un gars de Régina
Saskatchewan
Tu m'as pris ma femme
Depuis qu'elle est partie
Moi je suis un gars fini
Saskatchewan
Tu m'as pris ma femme
Mon cheval ne me parle plus
Mes vaches me disent « tu »
Saskatchewan
Tu m'as pris ma femme
Je vais prendre mon lasso
Et je vais te crisser dans l'eau
Saskatchewan
Tu m'as pris ma femme
In english
A beautiful morning
I left to far
To carry out my herd
In Ontario
I left my wife
In Saskatchewan
I told her soon
You'll see a hat
It will be mine
I'll be at the end of the road
You'll say here my husband
Coming back from the meadow
But when I came back
My lovely love
Had left me there
For a guy from Regina
I took my hat
And my lasso
And I drown my pain
In the bar of the meadow
Saskatchewan
You took my wife from me
She left me there
For a guy from Regina
Saskatchewan
You took my wife from me
Since she's gone
I'm a finished guy
Saskatchewan
You took my wife from me
My horse doesn't talk to me anymore
My cows are saying «you»
Saskatchewan
You took my wife from me
I'll take my lasso
And I'll throw you in the water
Saskatchewan
You took my wife from me -
At 4:29 p.m.,
FiL said...
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Crisse de saint-ciboire de tabarnouche!!! Ca me fait brailler...
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At 5:06 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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Enculé, ça fait chier, putain de merde!
In cursing as in cuisine, I prefer Parisian over Quebecois French.
