Un Canadien errant
Un Canadien errant, Banni de ses foyers
If you think this song has something to do with the displacement of the Acadians imposed by the British government in the latter part of the 18th century… you are mistaken. On the contrary, it was written after, and to commemorate, the Mackenzie-Papineau rebellion of 1837-38, as a result of which several rebels were hanged, exiled, or fled to the U.S.
Many interpretations of it can be heard online; my preference goes to that of Nana Mouskouri.
French Lyrics (English Translation Follows)
1 Un Canadien errant
Banni de ses foyers1 (bis)
Parcourait en pleurant
Des pays étrangers. (bis)
2 Un jour triste et pensif
Assis au bord des flots2
Au courant fugitif
Il adressa ces mots:
3 « Si tu vois mon pays
Mon pays malheureux
Va dire à mes amis
Que je me souviens d’eux.
4 « O jours si pleins d’appas3
Vous êtes disparus
Et ma patrie, hélas,
je ne la verrai plus.
6 « Non, mais en expirant
O mon cher Canada
Mon regard languissant
Vers toi se portera. »
A couple of other quatrains to insert somewhere:
« Plongés dans mes malheurs,
Loin de mes chers parents,
Je passe dans les pleurs
D’infortunés moments.
« Pour jamais séparé
Des amis de mon coeur
Hélas! oui, je mourrai
Je mourrai de douleur ».
French Lyrics With English Translation
| 1 Un canadien errant Banni de ses foyers, (bis) Parcourait en pleurant Des pays étrangers. (bis) | 1 A wandering Canadian, Banished from his home (twice), Passed weeping through Foreign countries. (twice) |
| 2 Un jour triste et pensif Assis au bord des flots Au courant fugitif Il adressa ces mots: | 2 One day, sad and pensive, Sitting on the banks of a river, To the fleeting current He addressed these words: |
| 3 « Si tu vois mon pays Mon pays malheureux Va dire à mes amis Que je me souviens d’eux. | 3 “If you see my country, My unhappy country, Go, say to my friends That I remember them. |
| 4 « O jours si pleins d’appas Vous êtes disparus Et ma patrie, hélas, je ne la verrai plus. | 4 “Oh, days so full of charms, You have disappeared, And my country, alas! I shall never see again. |
| 5 « Non, mais en expirant O mon cher Canada Mon regard languissant Vers toi se portera. » | 5 “No; but, as I expire, O my dear Canada, My dying look Will turn towards you.” |
The other two quatrains:
| « Plongés dans mes malheurs, Loin de mes chers parents, Je passe dans les pleurs D’infortunés moments. | “Plunged into my miseries, Far from my dear relatives, I pass in tears Wretched moments. |
| « Pour jamais séparé Des amis de mon coeur Hélas! oui, je mourrai Je mourrai de douleur ». | “Separated forever From the friends of my heart, Alas yes, I shall die, I shall die from sorrow.” |
- Why the plural “foyers” here? French sometimes considers the plural more poetical than the singular. Singular foyer means “home, hearth, domestic residence.” The plural can mean the same, or the region you were born and grew up in.[↩]
- flots, m. – Fancy-poetical word for “waves,” not necessarily of a river, but since there is a “courant” here… Though “flots” could also mean the tide. The word is Germanic in origin and cognate with English “flood.”[↩]
- appas, m.pl. – a word made popular by the 17th-century Précieuses and appearing on almost every page of French tragical verse, meaning the physical charms of a woman.[↩]
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This is the anthem of ex-pat French Canadians. The one song guaranteed to make my mother cry—yet she would ask me to sing it all the time. I sang it for her at a concert in St. Jean-Port-Joli and the entire audience sang it with me. This was also in the soundtrack of the film exhibition in the Canadian Pavilion at the 1967 Expo in Montreal—a solitary fur trapper paddling his canoe down a primeval river. Very moving.
Excellent. So many en exilee now a days can really identify exactly with this somber sentiment in the midst of an enlightened and advanced world.
Thank you.