The Partisan

I was wide awake at 4 o'clock this morning and humming the tune to 'The Partisan' by Leonard Cohen. 

I have no idea why I would be doing that. 

And to be perfectly honest, I would have much preferred to have been sleeping. 

So, I thought to myself this is an odd thing to be occupying my insomniac mind with, I should put a clip of the Cohen song on this blog. Because oddness and this blog are simpatico! 

So, I searched on You Tube and found this 

But, more interestingly, for me anyway, is that I discovered 'The Partisan' by Laughing Lenny Cohen is actually an adaption of a World War 2 French resistance song. (Actually makes sense if you think about it, but I never knew that). 

Wikipedia has a page on the original song - La Complainte du Partisan

So, anyway, in trying to find the lyrics to Cohen's adaptation I stumbled across this version of 'La Complainte du Partisan' by Anna Marly. (Thanks to this website)

I also found this website with the following comment.

 "Leonard said that the song was often sung during the youth camps he participated in." (It is worth checking the webpage out. It has some neat history on the song worth learning about).

A comparison between Cohen's adapted lyrics and how they are rendered in an ordinarily straight translation of the original song can be looked at here.  

I must admit I liked how Cohen tweaked it. 

Here are Cohen's words...

"The Partisan"

When they poured across the border
I was cautioned to surrender,
this I could not do;
I took my gun and vanished.
I have changed my name so often,
I've lost my wife and children
but I have many friends,
and some of them are with me.

An old woman gave us shelter,
kept us hidden in the garret,
then the soldiers came;
she died without a whisper.

There were three of us this morning
I'm the only one this evening
but I must go on;
the frontiers are my prison.

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,
through the graves the wind is blowing,
freedom soon will come;
then we'll come from the shadows.

Les Allemands étaient chez moi (The Germans were at my home)
ils m'ont dit "Résigne-toi" (They said, "Surrender,")
mais je n'ai pas pu (this I could not do)
j'ai repris mon arme (I took my weapon again)

J'ai changé cent fois de nom (I have changed names a hundred times)
j'ai perdu femme et enfants (I have lost wife and children)
mais j'ai tant d'amis (But I have so many friends)
j'ai la France entière (I have all of France)

Un vieil homme dans un grenier (An old man, in an attic)
pour la nuit nous a cachés (Hid us for the night)
les Allemands l'ont pris (The Germans captured him)
il est mort sans surprise (He died without surprise)

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,
through the graves the wind is blowing,
freedom soon will come;
then we'll come from the shadows.