I discovered this song while watching the film "One Week" last night. Try as I might to find an apt version of it to post, there are very few examples to be found on youtube among the many renditions of it, and this one by Canadian folksinger Bonnie Dobson (yet another discovery for me) comes closest the song from the movie.
There is a version by the venerable master himself, Leonard Cohen, taken from a documentary on him, but for some reason he chose to render it with horns reminiscent of the Tijuana Brass - not that I have anything against them, it just wasn't working for me.
Wikipedia explains that "Un Canadien errant" ("a wandering Canadian") is a song written in 1842 by Antoine Gérin-Lajoie after the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837-1838. Some of the rebels were condemned to death, while others were exiled to the United States. Gérin-Lajoie wrote the song, about the pain of exile, while taking his classical exams at Nicolet. The song has become a patriotic anthem for Canadians who, at different times in history, have experienced the pain of exile. In addition to those exiled following the Lower Canada Rebellion, it has had particular importance for the rebels of the Upper Canada Rebellion and for the Acadiens who suffered mass deportation from their homeland in the Great Upheaval between 1755-1763. The Acadien version is known as "Un Acadien errant."
Original French lyrics:
Un Canadien errant,
Banni de ses foyers,
Parcourait en pleurant
Des pays étrangers.
Un jour, triste et pensif,
Assis au bord des flots,
Au courant fugitif
Il adressa ces mots
"Si tu vois mon pays,
Mon pays malheureux,
Va, dis à mes amis
Que je me souviens d'eux.
"Ô jours si pleins d'appas
Vous êtes disparus,
Et ma patrie, hélas!
Je ne la verrai plus!
"Non, mais en expirant,
Ô mon cher Canada!
Mon regard languissant
Vers toi se portera..."
English Translation:
An errant ‘Canadien’
Banished from his homeland
Weeping, he travels on
Wandering through foreign lands
One day, sad and pensive
Seated on the river’s bank
To the evasive current,
Did he address these words:
“If you should see my home
My sad unhappy land
Go, say to all my friends
That I remember them
"O days once so full of charm
You are all gone away
And my homeland, alas!
I'll not see her again
"No, but with my last breath
O my dear Canada!
My dying gaze
will turn toward you"
This is the 1927 English version by John Murray Gibbon.
Once a Canadian lad,
Exiled from hearth and home,
Wandered, alone and sad,
Through alien lands unknown.
Down by a rushing stream,
Thoughtful and sad one day,
He watched the water pass
And to it he did say:
"If you should reach my land,
My most unhappy land,
Please speak to all my friends
So they will understand.
Tell them how much I wish
That I could be once more
In my beloved land
That I will see no more.
"My own beloved land
I'll not forget till death,
And I will speak of her
With my last dying breath.
My own beloved land
I'll not forget till death,
And I will speak of her
With my last dying breath."
There is a version by the venerable master himself, Leonard Cohen, taken from a documentary on him, but for some reason he chose to render it with horns reminiscent of the Tijuana Brass - not that I have anything against them, it just wasn't working for me.
Wikipedia explains that "Un Canadien errant" ("a wandering Canadian") is a song written in 1842 by Antoine Gérin-Lajoie after the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837-1838. Some of the rebels were condemned to death, while others were exiled to the United States. Gérin-Lajoie wrote the song, about the pain of exile, while taking his classical exams at Nicolet. The song has become a patriotic anthem for Canadians who, at different times in history, have experienced the pain of exile. In addition to those exiled following the Lower Canada Rebellion, it has had particular importance for the rebels of the Upper Canada Rebellion and for the Acadiens who suffered mass deportation from their homeland in the Great Upheaval between 1755-1763. The Acadien version is known as "Un Acadien errant."
Original French lyrics:
Un Canadien errant,
Banni de ses foyers,
Parcourait en pleurant
Des pays étrangers.
Un jour, triste et pensif,
Assis au bord des flots,
Au courant fugitif
Il adressa ces mots
"Si tu vois mon pays,
Mon pays malheureux,
Va, dis à mes amis
Que je me souviens d'eux.
"Ô jours si pleins d'appas
Vous êtes disparus,
Et ma patrie, hélas!
Je ne la verrai plus!
"Non, mais en expirant,
Ô mon cher Canada!
Mon regard languissant
Vers toi se portera..."
English Translation:
An errant ‘Canadien’
Banished from his homeland
Weeping, he travels on
Wandering through foreign lands
One day, sad and pensive
Seated on the river’s bank
To the evasive current,
Did he address these words:
“If you should see my home
My sad unhappy land
Go, say to all my friends
That I remember them
"O days once so full of charm
You are all gone away
And my homeland, alas!
I'll not see her again
"No, but with my last breath
O my dear Canada!
My dying gaze
will turn toward you"
This is the 1927 English version by John Murray Gibbon.
Once a Canadian lad,
Exiled from hearth and home,
Wandered, alone and sad,
Through alien lands unknown.
Down by a rushing stream,
Thoughtful and sad one day,
He watched the water pass
And to it he did say:
"If you should reach my land,
My most unhappy land,
Please speak to all my friends
So they will understand.
Tell them how much I wish
That I could be once more
In my beloved land
That I will see no more.
"My own beloved land
I'll not forget till death,
And I will speak of her
With my last dying breath.
My own beloved land
I'll not forget till death,
And I will speak of her
With my last dying breath."
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