Cohen article in swiss-french magazine L'hebdo

simonelimone · Post by **simonelimone** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 1:43 am

About his 70th birthday and the new album "dear heather".

Voir sous http://www.hebdo.ch/index.cfm?id=1354

Cheers - Simon

linmag · Post by **linmag** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 6:36 pm

Not much about the new album though. One could be forgiven for thinking the reviewer had only heard the title song - it's the only one mentioned.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 7:07 pm

Thanks for letting us know, Linmag ~ as I can't really read enough French to make it through an article with much success.

However, listening to Brel's "Infiniment" is making me crave understanding and being able to sing in the language.

Tchocolatl · Post by **Tchocolatl** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 2:02 am

Nice paper, written by a fan, as far as I can see, who took pleasure to review the career over in this occasion. "Romantic but never sopy". This is how I see Leonard Cohen also.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 4:19 am

Yes, that comment's very true....."Romantic but never soppy." Perhaps, someone will get motivated to translate the article

for us non-French-speaking varieties.

simonelimone · Post by **simonelimone** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 5:35 am

what is "soppy", dear lizzy?

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 5:41 am

~ Here, "soppy" is a word that would be used in the sense of something being "sopping" wet. Like drenched with rain or tears. So, in this context, it would mean dripping with emotion and sentimentality.

Tchocolatl · Post by **Tchocolatl** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:08 am

"Evening of a ladies’ man
Leonard Cohen sang love under all sorts of forms. At 70 years old, in Dear Heather, he still celebrates “la Femme”.

In September, Leonard Cohen had 70 years old. At the age where others write The Art of Being Grand Father, the pessimistic mystic continues to dedicate a fervent cult to women. Dear Heather, a song as bref as poignant, testifies on a falling night fashion about this inextiguible flame."

And then Antoine Duplan talks about some famous women in the songs and/or life of Cohen. Easy to identify by their name, I guess even to an Eskimo. For the rest he is translating from English to French some passages that he must enjoy - or I imagine that he does ? well I did enjoy his translation - so I do not see the point to translate the translations flip flop flip.

But I don't know, maybe somebedy else would feel it.

[/i]

lightning · Post by **lightning** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:17 am

The title of the article is "The Evening of a Ladies' Man". The Song "Because of" from Dear Heather is translated into French as are quite a few chunks from other songs reflecting Leonard's obsession with/ adoration of various women in his work including Suzanne, Marianne, other mistresses , even Katherine Tekakwitha from Beautiful Losers. The gist of the piece is that he's still at it, even at an advanced age. The piece shows a great respect for his writing and one gets the feel that the author did not have much to say in commentary or analysis and so contented himself with quoting Cohen extensively in translation as if many of the readers may not have been familiar with his songs. "Because of" and "Dear Heather" are the only ones from the new album that are presented. Perhaps the author was limited in English comprehension and had not yet figured the other ones out. It is our native language and it will take us all some time, too.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:25 am

Thank you, both, Tchocolatl and Lightning. That helps me out considerably

.

Tchocolatl · Post by **Tchocolatl** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:44 am

Thanks Lithning for the resume of the article.

You see, I felt that he was pleasing himself by taking the occasion to translate some favourite lines more than he would have been pleased by talking about the new album to come only. And it seems to me that he did so through the theme "women", because of the new album's title. We all see what we want in Cohen's work, don't we?

I also felt that he must be good in both English and French because his translations are fine. As Swiss has three official languages : German, French and Italian, I guess he is used to pass a concept from a language to another and not just a word.

Tchocolatl · Post by **Tchocolatl** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:45 am

My pleasure lizzytysh

P.S. : Thank you simonelemone and lizzytysh to have indirectly corrected my typo.

Tchocolatl · Post by **Tchocolatl** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 7:06 am

I'm not sure about Switzerland... if Romansh is not a 4th official language. Official or national?

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 4:00 pm

You're welcome, Tchoc. I figured it was that simple of a thing. WoW on Switzerland. That's an amazing array of languages to have at the tip of your tongue to draw upon.

simonelimone · Post by **simonelimone** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 10:16 pm

Indeed we have four official languages, German, French, Italian and Rumansh (which is only spoken by about 40 000 people, and which is close to catalan, I've been told...). But most Swiss only speak one other national language. And unfortunatly, here in my Spanish exile I'm lost with my German and French...