Quebec, being the nationalist place it is, has had several songs written for it, or about it. Technically, even the present-day Oh Canada, in its French form, is pretty openly all about a Canada that's French, Catholic, and lives along the Saint-Lawrence; in other words, Quebec.
Quebec does not officialy have an anthem, which is surprising given how otherwise quick we are to give ourselves all the attributes of a country we can, and then name hem "national".
There have been proposal, ranging from the bombastic and over-proud Demain of the sixties, to the unofficial but popular Gens du Pays (by Gilles Vigneault), which is more of a celebration song, but since it is the song we sing every Quebec day (June 24), an association of sort has grown. On the downside, it's also the song whose chorus we've appropriated as a birthday song.
Personally, if I were asked to pick one song for Quebec, it would be another of Vigneault's song, namely Mon Pays.
Translation of the lyric is as follow:
My country is no country, it's winter.
My garden is no garden, it's the plain
My path is no path, it's the snow
My country is no country, it's winter.
In the white ceremony where snow and wind are wed
In this country of blizzards my father had a house built
And I will be faithful to his manner, to his way
The guest room will be such
That they will come from all seasons to build next to it
My country is no country, it's winter
My chorus is no chorus, it's a flurry
My house is no house, it's frost
My country is no country, it's winter
From this great solitary country I shout before going silent
To all the men of Earth My house is your house!
Between these four walls of ice, I take my time my space
To prepare fire and room
For the men of the horizon, for mankind is my race,
My country is no country, it's winter
My garden is no garden, it's the plain
My way is no way, it's snow
My country is no country, it's winter
My country is no country, it's the reverse
Of a country that was neither country nor homeland
My song is no song, it's my life
It's for you I wish to master my winters
I don't think you can put Quebec more effectively or more beautifully in a single song.
Friday, January 9, 2009
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2 comments:
"Technically, even the present-day Oh Canada, in its French form, is pretty openly all about a Canada that's French, Catholic, and lives along the Saint-Lawrence; in other words, Quebec."
Yeah, right. The national anthem is all about Quebec? Way to live up to every single stereotype about Quebecers there is. Do you people really think the whole country revolves around you?
The national anthem, in its French version, most certainly is about Quebec.
The "Canada" of the French Oh Canada is explicitly a land where people have a Patron Saint who is "the precursor of the true god" (which is an epithet that apply to exactly one saint: St John the Baptist), who live alongside a "Giant River".
St John the Baptist being, of course, the Patron Saint of French-Canadians (and not of Acadians; that's Saint Mary). And while you could make a case that there are more than a few Giant Rivers in Canada, a reference to a giant river in conjunction with French Canada, in a song written in 1880, isn't going to be about the Nelson or the Churchill or the Mackenzie or the Fraser - it's a blatant reference to the Saint Lawrence.
Not to mention the song was commissioned by a Lt-Gov of Quebec, for the Saint-Jean-Baptiste feast (ie, Quebec/French Canada's big holiday) of 1880.
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