Lyrics and translations are now online, many thanks to Tri Yann and webmaster Eric Doll!
Fransozig
Tri Yann
Nozvezh kentañ ma eured me ’m oa komadaman
Evit servijañ ar Roue ret eo bezhañ kontan.
Evit servijañ ar Roue ret eo obeisso,
Met ma dousig Fransisa ’chom d’ar gêr o ouelo.
“Tevet, tevet Fransoizig, tevet na ouelit ket,
A-benn un daou pe un tri bloaz me ’deuï c’hoazh d’ho kwelet!”
Paseet an daou an tri bloaz ar berved ’zo ivez,
Nag ar vartolod yaouank ne zeu tamm da vale.
Ar plac’hig a oa yaouank hag a gave hir he amzer,
’Doa lakaet e-barzh e soñj da zimeziñ ’darre.
Na pa oa tud an eured diouzh an taol o koanio,
N’em gavas ur martolod ’ban ti a c’houl’ lojo:
“Bonjour d’oc’h matez vihan, na c’hwi lojefe?
Me ’zo martolod yaouank ’tistreiñ eus an arme”.
The first night of my honeymoon I received orders
To serve the king as we are obliged.
To go serve the king, we must obey,
But my sweet Fransoisig stays at home crying.
"Keep quiet Fransoisig, quiet yourself, do not cry,
In two or three years I will see you! "
Past two and three years, the fourth too,
No young sailor does.
The girl was young and had waited for long;
By now she had arranged to remarry
When people ate at her wedding banquet,
A Marine asks to stay in the house:
"Hello to you girl, may I stay?
I am a young sailor who has returned from the army."
-----------------------------------------
Maïawela
Tri Yann
(Note: In my amateur opinion, words look rather archaic in this piece)
Chantons la belle Maïawela, Rouge robe de noçailles de Roy.
Elle prit naissance dans les flors d’un chesne
Croisé de geneste et de verne,
Elle blanchit la nublèce de son éclat,
Elle est anguile beaucoup plus que cobra.
Chantons la belle Maïawela, Rouge robe de noçailles de Roy.
Elle faist synfonie de flûte d’un pâtre,
Faille vive de bois verde en l’astre,
Tient aulberge à vinée plus doulce qu’en Arbois,
Faist aux jacquets hostellerie de ses draps.
Chantons la belle Maïawela, Rouge robe de noçailles de Roy.
Elle est d’estranges et d’estrangères rives,
Sa cavale mil cavaliers suivent,
Elle impose triève dans les tornois,
A Lucifer de chanter Alleluya!
Chantons la belle Maïawela, Rouge robe de noçailles de Roy.
A l’estranger offre ses poires blanches,
Plus sucrées que pomes d’orenge;
Elle tresjète la neige de sous ses pas
Et faist velours des ronceries sous ses doigts.
Chantons la belle Maïawela, Rouge robe de noçailles de Roy.
Elle a chainsil tissé d’ailes d’abueilles,
Panier d’or enclos de dentèle,
Faist chaline, ventelet, tempeste de son choix,
Froider le froid, brusler l’encens d’Angora.
Chantons la belle Maïawela, Rouge robe de noçailles de Roy...
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Saturday, April 12, 2008
The Chief Gardener's Island
Lost world: the last days of feudal Sark
on independent.co.uk
[Blogroll >> ::An Leabharlann:: >> :Articles: >> Feudal Sark]
Seigneur John Michael Beaumont of Sark, from article by Charles Schwab
"As Seigneur of Sark, an island three miles long and one mile wide, 25 miles from the French coast, Beaumont's position is an enviable one. Since 1565, when Elizabeth I granted the island to the nobleman Hellier de Carteret in return for his protection against pirates, the Seigneurs have ruled this rock. And, in return for the £1.79 Beaumont pays annually to the British Crown to keep the island "in perpetuity", the Seigneur holds the privilege of granting the Sarkees permission to buy and sell their houses; and he is also entitled to collect a treizieme - one-thirteenth of every land transaction.
"But not for long. Beaumont's days of occupying his unique position are numbered. Earlier this month, the self-governing island, which falls under the protectorate of the British crown, voted by a majority of 234 to 184 to usher in universal suffrage for its population of 610. No longer will the island's 40 landowners, or "tenants" as they are confusingly known, sit on Sark's government - the "Chief Pleas". Nor will Beaumont retain his treizieme, or his right of veto.
"Next year, the adult population of the island will go to the polls for the first time with one vote each and elect 28 new members of the "Chief Pleas". Sark will be a democracy. That it has taken Sark 500 years longer than most of Western Europe to abolish feudalism should come as no surprise. As any newcomer soon realises, on Sark things move slowly."
I: Law reforms on the Island of Sark were aproved just this Wednesday, which appeared in the front page of Wikipedia. Democratisation should sound good; it certainly did sound good once, like, ten years back. But, like in any story involving preaching the glories of the modern world to a reclusive and simple-minded people, it would tend to turn members of the audience onto each other.
Because while a community ruled by the authority of one lord certainly sounds out of this age, one finds it hard to imagine that it is right for a couple of wealthy businessmen, both outsiders, to force democratisation upon Sark as a way of dodging tributes to the Seigneur.
II: I notice that the Barclay brothers relied on the European Convention of Human Rights to challenge Sark's law of inheritance (along with, it reads, Sark's jurisdiction over Brecqhou, an adjacent island bought over by the Barclays). It strikes me as a cynical gesture, an abuse of the idea of human rights that is not uncommonly met today.
In an spotlight issue entirely unrelated to Sark, more than a few fists were flying over where the Olympic Torch made its way. The issue is on the independence of Tibet, again a purported "human rights" issue.
Paralympic fencer Jin Jing and pro-Tibet assailants, from related article in 万维读者网
Give it a rest, hotheads.
on independent.co.uk
[Blogroll >> ::An Leabharlann:: >> :Articles: >> Feudal Sark]
"As Seigneur of Sark, an island three miles long and one mile wide, 25 miles from the French coast, Beaumont's position is an enviable one. Since 1565, when Elizabeth I granted the island to the nobleman Hellier de Carteret in return for his protection against pirates, the Seigneurs have ruled this rock. And, in return for the £1.79 Beaumont pays annually to the British Crown to keep the island "in perpetuity", the Seigneur holds the privilege of granting the Sarkees permission to buy and sell their houses; and he is also entitled to collect a treizieme - one-thirteenth of every land transaction.
"But not for long. Beaumont's days of occupying his unique position are numbered. Earlier this month, the self-governing island, which falls under the protectorate of the British crown, voted by a majority of 234 to 184 to usher in universal suffrage for its population of 610. No longer will the island's 40 landowners, or "tenants" as they are confusingly known, sit on Sark's government - the "Chief Pleas". Nor will Beaumont retain his treizieme, or his right of veto.
"Next year, the adult population of the island will go to the polls for the first time with one vote each and elect 28 new members of the "Chief Pleas". Sark will be a democracy. That it has taken Sark 500 years longer than most of Western Europe to abolish feudalism should come as no surprise. As any newcomer soon realises, on Sark things move slowly."
I: Law reforms on the Island of Sark were aproved just this Wednesday, which appeared in the front page of Wikipedia. Democratisation should sound good; it certainly did sound good once, like, ten years back. But, like in any story involving preaching the glories of the modern world to a reclusive and simple-minded people, it would tend to turn members of the audience onto each other.
Because while a community ruled by the authority of one lord certainly sounds out of this age, one finds it hard to imagine that it is right for a couple of wealthy businessmen, both outsiders, to force democratisation upon Sark as a way of dodging tributes to the Seigneur.
II: I notice that the Barclay brothers relied on the European Convention of Human Rights to challenge Sark's law of inheritance (along with, it reads, Sark's jurisdiction over Brecqhou, an adjacent island bought over by the Barclays). It strikes me as a cynical gesture, an abuse of the idea of human rights that is not uncommonly met today.
In an spotlight issue entirely unrelated to Sark, more than a few fists were flying over where the Olympic Torch made its way. The issue is on the independence of Tibet, again a purported "human rights" issue.
Paralympic fencer Jin Jing and pro-Tibet assailants, from related article in 万维读者网
Give it a rest, hotheads.
Self-effacement
Premise: Is self-effacement, in other words: keeping a low profile before people in deed as well in thought, a good way to get around? For me, at least.
Whydo I ask this? On one hand, I find it incredibly fun to go around noticing things and not getting noticed in turn. I get nervous when I become noticed, and usually subsequently attempts to cover up by pretending nothing is really happening here, whatever things happening. (Stated here the meaning of self-effacement in present context)
On the other hand, does belonging in a proud and exclusive group destroy the non-offensive nature of self-effacement? When you hesitate in announcing your vocation, does a voice nag you from the back of your head, saying "Why are you not proud?" Is self-effacement then an antisocial act?
And since an assumption of importance will rightfully entail an assumption of responsibility, if I can take responsibility, why not assume importance then? At this point now, is self-effacement an irresponsible act?
And a good few people will know the back story, the unrelated events leading to me asking this for myself.
Is it a question of humility? Not really, but it kind of grows out of the question of humility. A self-effacing person may not be too vain, too outwardly arrogant etc. but it does not show that they are humble, a word which is correctly taken to mean "knows his place". Therefore it is possible that he sees himself as less important as he really is, thereby becoming wholly unhumble.
I know some people who actually do things like that other than myself, and worked with them in the past, when people took things easy. It wasn't easy. They did as good as shirked from responsibility.
What other questions should I ask?
Whydo I ask this? On one hand, I find it incredibly fun to go around noticing things and not getting noticed in turn. I get nervous when I become noticed, and usually subsequently attempts to cover up by pretending nothing is really happening here, whatever things happening. (Stated here the meaning of self-effacement in present context)
On the other hand, does belonging in a proud and exclusive group destroy the non-offensive nature of self-effacement? When you hesitate in announcing your vocation, does a voice nag you from the back of your head, saying "Why are you not proud?" Is self-effacement then an antisocial act?
And since an assumption of importance will rightfully entail an assumption of responsibility, if I can take responsibility, why not assume importance then? At this point now, is self-effacement an irresponsible act?
And a good few people will know the back story, the unrelated events leading to me asking this for myself.
Is it a question of humility? Not really, but it kind of grows out of the question of humility. A self-effacing person may not be too vain, too outwardly arrogant etc. but it does not show that they are humble, a word which is correctly taken to mean "knows his place". Therefore it is possible that he sees himself as less important as he really is, thereby becoming wholly unhumble.
I know some people who actually do things like that other than myself, and worked with them in the past, when people took things easy. It wasn't easy. They did as good as shirked from responsibility.
What other questions should I ask?
Sunday, March 16, 2008
The Passing of Archbishop Paulos
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| Assyrian children protesting the death of Paulos Faraj Rahho on March 14, 2008 in Tel Keppe. (www.ankawa.com) |
How did they look upon the face of Archbishop Paulos? Did they see the serenity, the spirit of their own God looking back at them? And when they threatened the cleric's life, did their hands shake? Did their trigger fingers fail? Were there beads of sweat, beads of their conscience crying out mercy?
How do we hear, the last moments of Archbishop Paulos? Did he pass away silently blessing his captors? Was he hit when a nervous gunman misfired? Was he killed in cold blood as the captors' conscience ran dry?
How do we hear the plight of his flock?
Which side do we turn to our brethren in Iraq who are overrun in this chaotic melee?
What songs do we sing to greet their murdered souls?*
What effort made to relate their life and ours?
We do not know.
"We, Christians of Mesopotamia, are used to religious persecution and pressures by those in power. After Constantine, persecution ended only for Western Christians, whereas in the East threats continued. Even today we continue to be a Church of martyrs."
--Mar Paulos on November 26, 2007, three months before he was found murdered
*Here's to guys in my company
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Of All Weathers
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The Route: From Tanah Merah via Changi Village to Pasir Ris, also a popular cycling route.
The Mood: The rain made everyone happy. At least, some people seemed happier in the rain; we jumped into puddles like children, sang the alphabet song, ninety-nine green bottles etc. There is no better way to get wet, so there.
We had a tendency to sing most loudly whenever civilians (esp. pretty young women) walk past. Yea, braggarts we all are.
The Food: We had a good lunch. It's called Nasi Briyani. If we had lunch just twenty minutes later, it would be called Nasi Porridge.
It was during lunch we noticed the Tekong folks unboarding the fastcraft at the jetty. They must have had their parade in the morning.
Then at night the parents came to the parade and rammed our wet jungle hats upon our wet heads. But it was a nice touch that they let Dad and Mom do it. It's like giving them that chance to give us the strategic shove from chao recruit to chao private. Or from boy to man, or anything else along that line.
The Platoon Four Haka
My sisters and I
I don't know when's the next time I'll smile as brightly as that
because everything will get tougher after this and I'll find it hard to catch up.
I think that is about as much stuff as can be said online.
Ah, and I recommend Mou Zongxiao's blog
Armed and Dangerous! 不畏！不恐！不惧！
because life in Tekong is not too different from that in Pasir Ris.
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