When I first moved to France, I didn't think (being the somewhat more judgemental person that I was at that time) I would like any French music. The only music I had known was from the likes of Charles Asznavour and Edith Piaf, music that I felt were somewhat outdated. But my lover at that time, the one for whom I moved to France, introduced me to many different bands and I discovered new worlds. This is the beauty of travel.
Students often ask me, of all the places I have visited, which countries have I loved the most, and which have I hated. I can never answer that question and it's not for fear of being unfair. In truth, I do not know. Every country has given to me and taken away from me. In every place, I have learned something and I have appreciated something. Every culture is an opportunity for growth and knowledge and every place, a place of beauty.
While still living in Canada, he introduced me to Noir Desir, one of the most popular French bands. I could not describe the style of music, probably in the pop-rock genre, but it sounds too hollow to categorize in such a way. One of their songs spoke to me then and I have never forgotten it. It is called "Le Vent Nous Portera" or "The Wind Will Carry Us."
It inspired me to write a poem the summer after he and I had been separated by the Atlantic Ocean and a year before I was to pack up my bags and follow him into an uncertain future.
Le Vent L’emportera July 14, 2002
Managing to take the pleasures out of summer.
Gentle breeze of the fan on medium,
Passionate music
Quiet evening
Mood lighting
And yet
Headache and heartache
And bodyaches
For a far away being
A remembered sight seen
Only in the mind’s eye
Only in the pictures lying
Across the apartment floor
I do not know
I can not know
I will not know when he’ll return
Shall I be tough and go away,
Away in my heart, from my heart
Smothered in blood, sullied with tears
Salty seas of a sadness so deep
The swim-less should beware
Some say the wind will blow it away
And hearts can be won back,
scarred but free of inundation
I do not know what to believe
When the sun has gone and doesn’t want to rise
When sleep sits just out of reach and pillows become hard
When the gentle breeze of that fan blows heat from the depths of the earth
Will the wind blow it out of the way
Will I not feel like I’m spinning out of control
Will my heart harden
Making strength from softness
Will I hear that beautiful voice whisper in my ear again
As I am slowly falling asleep
Whisper dreams of the future
In a country far away with a studio for him
And an office for me
With three horse-sized dogs and two kids
With an ocean as our back yard
All in the language of love
Will he ever do as he’s said and paint portraits of me
Naked on an unmade bed,
Portraits of a woman in love and loved
By the man who paints her
Will he return and entice her to move in with him
In an apartment full of light and life
Where they can start living like neither of them has ever experienced
Or will the dream die before his return
Will it drown in her salty sea
In the bottomless depth of self-pity
A sort of sanctuary.
Below, the original lyrics of the song followed by a translation that I found online and tweaked a little bit. It's very hard to translate from French to English because French is such a powerfully poetic language that often gets lost in English.
Faudrait voir, faut qu'on y goûte
Des méandres au creux des reins
Et tout ira bien là
Le vent nous portera.
Ton message à la Grande Ourse
Et la trajectoire de la course
Un instantané de velours
Même s'il ne sert à rien va
Le vent l'emportera.
Tout disparaîtra mais
Le vent nous portera.
La caresse et la mitraille
Et cette plaie qui nous tiraille
Le palais des autres jours
D'hier et demain
Le vent les portera.
Génétique en bandoulière
Des chromosomes dans l'atmosphère
Des taxis pour les galaxies
Et mon tapis volant dis ?
Le vent l'emportera.
Tout disparaîtra mais
Le vent nous portera.
Ce parfum de nos années mortes
Ce qui peut frapper à ta porte
Infinité de destins
On en pose un et qu'est-ce qu'on en retient?
Le vent l'emportera.
Pendant que la marée monte
Et que chacun refait ses comptes
J'emmène au creux de mon ombre
Des poussières de toi
Le vent les portera.
Tout disparaîtra mais
Le vent nous portera.
English Translation
I do not fear the journey,
I'll have to see,
I'll have to taste it,
Meanderings through the loins,
And everything will go well there,
The wind will carry us.
Your message to the Big Bear
And the trajectory of the path,
A velvet moment,
And even if it has no purpose,
The wind will carry it away.
All will disappear but
The wind will carry us.
The caress and the shellfire
And this wound that gnaws
A palace of former days
Of yesterday and tomorrow
The wind will carry them away.
Genetics slung across the shoulder
Chromosomes in the air
Taxis for the galaxies
And my flying carpet says?
The wind will carry it away
All will disappear but
The wind will carry us.
This perfume of our dead years
That which may knock at your door
The infinity of destinies
We set one down and what remains?
The wind will carry it away
While the tide is rising
And everyone reviews their accounts
I bring into the hollow of my shadow
Particles of you
The wind will carry them away.
And all will disappear but
The wind will carry us.
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