Cohen article in swiss-french magazine L'hebdo

Leonard Cohen's recent albums - share your views with others!
Tchocolatl
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Post by Tchocolatl »

Ah! Thank you Simonelemone. Merci, danke. :)
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"He can love the shape of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart. It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love."

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linmag
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Post by linmag »

Here is a translation for anyone who is interested. I would have done it earlier, but I have been away for a couple of days.

The Evening of a Ladies’ Man

Leonard Cohen has sung of love in all its forms. At the age of 70, with ‘Dear Heather’, he once more celebrates womankind.
By Antoine Duplan.

L’Hebdo, 14th October 2004

In September, Leonard Cohen turned 70. At the age when others are writing ‘How to be a Grandfather’, this pessimistic mystic continues his fervent devotion to womankind. ‘Dear Heather’, a song that is as brief as it is poignant, speaks of the twilight of this inextinguishable flame: “Because of a few songs/wherein I spoke of their mystery/women have been/exceptionally kind/to my old age./They make a secret place/in their busy lives/ and they take me there./They become naked/ in their different ways/ and they say,/’Look at me Leonard/look at me one last time.’/” Oh these numberless women, immodest and maternal, they have names and faces…… (In the French, the quotes also include the end of the paragraph, as if the French version of the poem has a slightly different ending to the English.)

The favourite remains Suzanne, to whom the first success of this lost Canadian (Canadien Errant) was dedicated. The half crazy lady dressed in rags and feathers from Salvation Army counters who “takes you down to her place by the river”, who “serves you tea and oranges that come all the way from China” and who “lets the river answer that you’ve always been her lover”. This poetic creation has an earthly original, the dancer Suzanne Verdal. Later another Suzanne, Suzanne Elrod, shared Cohen’s life.

Also from the ‘Songs of’ of 1967 comes Marianne, idealised reflection of the model Marianne Ihlen, from whom the poet sadly takes leave. “Now I need your hidden love, I’m cold as a new razor blade” (So Long Marianne). A notorious depressive, Cohen finds the most graphic images to express the joys of love: “I loved you in the morning, Our kisses deep and warm, Your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm” (Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye).

Sensual heat
Romantic but never affected, Leonard Cohen sings of love in all its forms, from the most ethereal to the most trivial. Conjugal love: “The years go by. You lose your pride and all your work is right before your eyes. I hope you are satisfied. The bed is rather narrow, but my arms are open wide” (I Tried to Leave You). Physical love. On the aptly-named ‘Death of a Ladies’ Man’ he even permits himself a risqué song: “Don’t go home with your hard-on, It will only drive you insane” (Don’t Go Home with Your Hard-on).

“The Naked Angel In My Heart, The Woman With Her Legs Apart” (Paper Thin Hotel), pervades most of the songs. Figments of the imagination or beings of flesh and blood, one night stands or companions for a short while, such as the photographer Dominique Isserman or the actress Rebecca de Mornay. And Janis Joplin, one shattered night in New York, “giving me head on the unmade bed” (Chelsea Hotel #2). And the angelic chorus, the backing singers: the faithful Jennifer Warnes, or Sharon Robinson who is cosignatory of Dear Heather. “I want to be surrounded by women, because my voice depresses me.” (I have left this in quotes, because the French was clearly a translation of an original quote, but I have no idea whether the English I have translated it back to is what was actually said.)

The poet’s libido has also drawn him towards historical figures. Queen Victoria, that troubled incarnation of repressed desire (“do you have a punishment under the white lace” – Queen Victoria) or Joan of Arc, who embodies the principles of love and death: “She said, I am tired of the war, a wedding dress or something white to wear upon my swollen appetite”. But this heroine will lose her virginity on a bonfire: “Then fire, make your body cold, I’m going to give you mine to hold. Saying this she climbed inside to be his one to be his only bride” (Joan of Arc). The Maid of France also makes an appearance in a couplet of Last Year’s Man, “I met a lady, she was playing with her soldiers in the dark (….) All these wounded boys you lie beside, Goodnight, my friends, goodnight”.

In Winter
The narrator of Beautiful Losers is obsessed with Katherine Tekakwitha. Is this 17th century virgin Iroquois martyr reincarnated in Edith, the loser who collects the sperm and the tears of her lovers in her navel? One song, perhaps the most beautiful Cohen has written, sums up in three couplets this glaucously erotic novel: Famous Blue Raincoat, a plaint of jealousy and forgiveness.

A “thin gypsy thief” with “a rose in your teeth” has seduced Jane. From the depths of winter the poet writes to his brother, his killer: “You treated my woman to a flake of your life, and when she came back she was nobody’s wife (…) I think I forgive you. I’m glad that you stood in my way. If ever you come by here (….) I want you to know that your enemy is sleeping. I want you to know that his woman is free. Yes, and thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes. I thought it was there for good, so I never tried.”….

Among the slow waltzes of Dear Heather, the title song says simply: “Dear Heather Please walk by me again With a drink in your hand And your legs all white From the winter”. As the cold approaches and the night descends, a flame still burns. Once more the poet turns towards our universal haven, womankind.
Last edited by linmag on Tue Oct 26, 2004 1:24 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by lizzytysh »

Thanks, Linmag :D .

A beautiful summation:
Among the slow waltzes of Dear Heather, the title song says simply: “Dear Heather Please walk by me again With a drink in your hand And your legs all white From the winter”. As the cold approaches and the night descends, a flame still burns. Once more the poet turns towards our universal haven, womankind.
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Post by Tchocolatl »

Very nice Linmag! :D It seems to me that you really felt for this translation.

P.S. : lizzytysh and simonelime : the next time I stumble over something like "inextinguishable" please focus on this beside little typos like second "p" (or first, who knows) of soppy. Please.... :D (yes I know, this should be done by me and by me only :P )
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"He can love the shape of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart. It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love."

Leonard Cohen
Beautiful Losers
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Post by simonelimone »

Thank you very much for this great work, linmag.

50 more minutes, then it's the 25th finally!!!

Cheers - simonelimone
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linmag
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Post by linmag »

Thanks folks. :) I really enjoyed doing the translation, but I hope I haven't put anything in there that was not already in the original. The hardest part was getting the translated quotes back into (I hope) the correct English!
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Post by lizzytysh »

Now, wait a minute, Tchocolatl :D ~ what you say would be to suggest that if I am to speak of "soppy," then I must continue in its misspelling? My addressing it was not to focus on the error, but rather to clarify its meaning for Simonelimone :wink: . Now, this "inextinguishable" thing, did you mean indistinguishable? When it comes to big words like that, I know that sometimes people wrestle them around to force them to convey what they want, anyway. I love the making up of words, and new forms of words. I don't do it so much [rarely], but love it when others do. We have just as much right as those who preceded us, and their invention made it into the dictionaries :D .
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Post by lightning »

Formidable, linmag! You did a great, smooth flowing eminently readable translation from the French. I know how difficult that can be. I think I remember you lived there for a while and have an advantage over us with school French. One nit pick is with one word, "mièvre" which I had to look up in a dictionary. I would have chosen 'affected" which pertains to style, while "effete" which you chose pertains to persons (Larousse). "Romantic but never affected" I would have said. Thanks for providing the translation.
We should also call attention to the fact that the writer called "Because of" by the title "Dear Heather" but besides that seemed familiar with Cohen.
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Post by linmag »

Thanks for the comments, Lightning. I have changed effete, as I think your version is probably better.
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Post by lightning »

Also "Canadien Errant" should read "wandering Canadian" instead of "lost Canadien." ( as in Juif errant).
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Post by Tchocolatl »

"mièvre" in the context is "soppy". Really. It may be not as beautiful a word than "effete", which is really an aesthetic word, and the meaning in the context could give an image of "mièvrerie" (feeble) that is not so bad, because he was talking about Leonard Cohen as well a his style. And soppy is not a plain, not shocking word like "affected" (mannered, insincere, for a person, and for a style, you could say "lack of natural", "precious" - not exactly the meaning of "mièvre" or "fleur bleue" if you prefer used in the context), no "soppy" is such an ugly word to look at. But this is the meaning of "mièvre" in the context of the text (which is "mièvre" when talking about lyrics, music, novel and as a person as feeble, colourless, insipid).

linmag your "effete" was not so feeble to me.

Now if you are mad, (I hope not) lighting you can take your revange on my "falling night fashion" as "affected manner", I guess :D

For the Lost Canadian, well, it is the title of the song The Lost Canadian. That was the delicate part, to render Cohen's words that were translated in French exactly the way they originally were.

Regarding this poor Canadian, we can say that he was wandering and lost as well. More Lost than wandering in fact. You have to know his story.
:)

It is a war drama that happened during the colonization of North America. There is another song about this, half/fiction half/History : Évangéline
Last edited by Tchocolatl on Tue Oct 26, 2004 8:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
***
"He can love the shape of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart. It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love."

Leonard Cohen
Beautiful Losers
Tchocolatl
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Post by Tchocolatl »

lizzytysh, very true, :D long words tend to change forms and usually to shrink when used (talked) and speaking language is always in advance, written language follows. But my typos have nothing to do!! Thanks for your benevolence, however! :)
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"He can love the shape of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart. It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love."

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Post by lightning »

Probably not worth a grand dispute and I am certainly grateful and not mad when I am corrected. However, "errare" in Latin means " to wander" the French "errer" derives from the Latin, and my Larousse defines "errant" as "stray, wandering, roaming, roving." The French for "lost" is "perdu". The song goes "Un Canadien errant banni de ses foyers parcourait en pleurant des pays étranger." "A wandering Canadian, banished from his home , crying, traveled through foreign lands." Who errs in translating "errant" as "lost" has strayed from the meaning, but is not lost.
Last edited by lightning on Tue Oct 26, 2004 5:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by lizzytysh »

When I saw "wandering" versus "lost," I much preferred "wandering," thinking, "Ah! Yes! With this, I can at last understand and appreciate this song being on Leonard's record." Right, wrong, or otherwise, it was my immediate thought.
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Post by Tchocolatl »

You are right lightning regarding "errant" and "wandering". Absolutely and completely.

I am sorry if I was not clear in my previous message. I meant that she had to use "Lost Canadian" because obviously the journalist was referring to the song.

For the rest, when you know that he was wandering because he was lost, (not knowing exactly where he was and how to come back home) this help to understand the choice of this word for the title of the song. I always think about this song as a song about the deportation like the song Évangéline, and I always do the same mistake. It could have been, but in fact, Un Canadien errant was written after a rebellion in 1837, when several patriots (Oh! mon cher Canada :wink:) were hanged or exiled. I guess this was more a song sang by an exile. Noboby sings after having been hanged.

The lyrics were written in 1842 by Antoine Gérin-Lajoie (in his bed he said in his bio). Funny detail : the music was borrowed from another folk song (Par derrière chez ma tante) but played more slow.

That is why I said in another message : if the tempo of The Faith is more slow than LC (Lost Canadian not...), how slow must it be? :?

No grand dispute for me either, just an interesting exchange of opinions as far as I'm concern. :D
Last edited by Tchocolatl on Wed Oct 27, 2004 8:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
***
"He can love the shape of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart. It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love."

Leonard Cohen
Beautiful Losers
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