Category: Fourre-tout

To appease my health insurance company, my wife and my weary guardian angel  I try to exercise (moderately) every day, and when I do, I usually listen to a collection of tunes stored on my iPhone.
My phone holds about 500 songs, some in French, Spanish, English, German, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Russian…
As you can see, I am an equal opportunity listener.
If a tune is catchy I will listen to it regardless of its language and its origins.

Among the French songs, there is one that I am particularly fond of.
It is called “la tendresse” (tenderness).
It was written by Italian born Patricia Carli and made famous by popular French singer Daniel Guichard.

In days of half-baked lyrics and dreadful melodies? shouted by half naked performers, it is refreshing to listen to heartfelt feelings that ring a bell in many of us.

Hoping that you like it as much as I do, here are the (inadequately translated) lyrics of this song:

La tendresse

C’est quelquefois ne plus s’aimer mais être heureux
De se trouver à nouveau deux
C’est refaire pour quelques instants un monde en bleu
Avec le cœur au bord des yeux
La tendresse, la tendresse, la tendresse
La tendresse, la tendresse
C’est quand on peut se pardonner sans réfléchir
Sans un regret sans rien se dire
C’est quand on veut se séparer sans se maudire
Sans rien casser, sans rien détruire

Tenderness

It is sometimes not loving each other anymore but being happy
To be together again
It is remaking for a few moments a world in blue
With the heart at the edge of the eyes (poetic license; extremely difficult to translate)
Tenderness, tenderness, tenderness,
Tenderness, tenderness,
It is when one can forgive without thinking,
Without a regret, without saying anything
It is when you can separate without cursing
Without breaking anything, without destroying anything

La tendresse, la tendresse, la tendresse
La tendresse, la tendresse
C’est un geste, un mot, un sourire quand on oublie
Que tous les deux on a grandi
C’est quand je veux te dire je t’aime et que j’oublie
Qu’un jour ou l’autre l’amour finit
La tendresse, la tendresse, la tendresse
La tendresse
La tendresse, la tendresse, la tendresse
La tendresse
Allez viens.

Tenderness, tenderness, tenderness
Tenderness, tenderness,
It is a gesture, a word, a smile when we forget
That we both grew up
It is when I want to say that I love you and forget
That love ends some day
Tenderness, tenderness, tenderness
Tenderness, tenderness
Come…

Alain

http://youtu.be/y1tflDrGDys

 

Some of you might have noticed that lately, I have not been as productive as I was in the past.
My literary output (I like the sound of this) has decreased and some of my readers are wondering why.
In my defense, may it please the court, I will submit arguments pointing to highly extenuating circumstances.

My blogging output is conditioned by my access to my computer, or more precisely access to the computer’s keyboard.
My primary problem stems from the fact that my collaborator is lazy (yes) and prone to lengthy snooze sessions on my work area.
This prevents me from accessing the keyboard, thus greatly restricting my creative output.

The second problem has something to do with her brazen attempts to take control of my writing.
She will frequently try to correct my so-called “mistakes” by blocking the cursor on the screen with her right paw.
But (and I am not bragging) I am a much better speller than she is and she knows it.
I won’t be intimidated by her brazen insolence.

And leaning on the screen with both front paws to obstruct my field of vision is a little childish, don’t you think? I don’t mind creative suggestions, but I won’t be bullied into submission by catty tactics.

Besides this, I also have other grievances.

In order to create, you need to have a clear mind and you cannot have a clear mind if you don’t get enough sleep.
I will submit to you ladies and gentlemen, that my slumber has been highly perturbed by my collaborator’s nightly incursions in my bed.
That hussy has no qualms about sleeping with me and taking advantage of my weak moral compass.
Licking my face with a raspy tongue is also highly prejudicial to the quality of my sleep.

To sum it up, ladies and gentlemen, my collaborator whose main activities are sleeping, playing, and eating (not necessarily in that order) lacks the inner drive and the qualities to be a successful blogger.
Did I mention the time spent on grooming?

I must confess that I hired her based on her good looks and her playful ways, but I am afraid that she not responsible enough to hold a trustworthy position.

It is for many of theses reasons that I am relegating her to a strictly honorific function.
I will keep her as a trophy cat to be exhibited at cocktail parties but that’s all.
No byline in my blog!

If you hear any rumors to the contrary, don’t believe it. I am still the sole writer and editor of this blog.

Thank you for your attention.

Alain

According to French media, the Jews are leaving France in droves. After a slew of murderous attacks they don’t feel safe anymore.
Some people might rejoice, but this does not augur well for the land of “liberté, égalité, fraternité ».
If history repeats itself (and it does) France is in for a lot of troubles.

In 1598, after years of conflict, Henry IV of France issued the Edict of Nantes, granting Protestants (also known as Huguenots) the right to legally worship their religion.

According to Wikipedia,
“It marked the end of the religious wars that had afflicted France during the second half of the 16th century.
In October 1685, Louis XIV, the grandson of Henry IV, repealed the Edict and declared Protestantism illegal. This act, commonly called the ‘revocation of the Edict of Nantes,‘ had very damaging results for France. While the wars of religion did not re-ignite, intense persecution of Protestants took place.

All Protestant ministers were given two weeks to leave the country unless they converted to Catholicism and all other Protestants were prohibited from leaving the country. In spite of the prohibition, the persecution including many examples of torture caused as many as 400,000 to flee France at risk of their lives.
Most moved to Great Britain, Prussia, the Dutch Republic, Switzerland, South Africa and the new French colonies in North America.
This exodus deprived France of many of its most skilled and industrious individuals, some of whom thenceforward aided France’s rivals in the Netherlands and in England.”

The latest Jewish exodus from France bears a lot of similarities with the repeal of the Edict of Nantes.
Last year, around 5000 Jews left France and this year it is estimated that another 7000 will depart for Israel.

The departure of educated, industrious, law-abiding Jews will impoverish France and create a dangerous vacuum that will be filled by neo-Nazis and Muslim extremists.
An explosive combination.

Just as the Protestants were forced to flee France in 1685, Jews are now compelled to follow the same path.
This new Jewish exodus will be extremely detrimental for a country where unemployment is already high and where people are already dangerously polarized.

And what would be a country without the self-depreciating Jewish humor?
Can any Muslim country laugh at itself or are they so straight-laced that they can’t even smile?

I’m Jewish. I don’t work out. If God had wanted us to bend over, He would have put diamonds on the floor.
Joan Rivers

My grandmother was a Jewish juggler: she used to worry about six things at once.
Richard Lewis

A country where people are afraid to laugh or voice a dissenting opinion is a country primed for dictatorship, tyranny and violations of human rights.

I am Charlie!

Alain

This is so much better than fighting!