A very beautiful 80’s song about difference, inequalities and origins. It was written in a context when racism was rising in France. (I’ll explain it in the notes for those who are interested). It’s one of Maxime Le Forestier’s most famous songs, and one that gave a new start to his career. Note : for the lyrics in zoulou language, I don’t guarantee the accuracy (I found it on some site) and I’m not even gonna try to translate it, for obvious reasons 😉
[More about Maxime Le Forestier]
- On choisit pas ses parents, on choisit pas sa famille
- On choisit pas non plus les trottoirs de Manille
- De Paris ou d’Alger, pour apprendre à marcher
- Être né quelque part
- Être né quelque part, pour celui qui est né
- C’est toujours un hasard
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Y a des oiseaux de basse-cours et des oiseaux de passage
- Qui savent où sont leur nid, qu’ils rentrent de voyages
- Ou qu’ils restent chez eux, ils savent où sont leurs oeufs
- Être né quelque part
- Être né quelque part, c’est partir quand on veut
- Revenir quand on part
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Est-ce que les gens naissent égaux en droit
- À l’endroit où ils naissent
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Est-ce que les gens naissent égaux en droit
- À l’endroit où ils naissent
- Que les gens naissent pareil ou pas
- Abantwana bayagxuma, becahselana bexoxa
- On choisit pas ses parents, on choisit pas sa famille
- On choisit pas non plus les trottoirs de Manille
- De Paris ou d’Alger, pour apprendre à marcher
- Je suis né quelque part
- Je suis né quelque part, laissez-moi ce repère, ou je perds la mémoire
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Est-ce que les gens naissent égaux en droit
- À l’endroit où ils naissent
- Que les gens naissent pareil ou pas
- Buka naba bexoshana
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Est-ce que les gens naissent égaux en droit
- À l’endroit où ils naissent
- Que les gens naissent pareil ou pas
- Buka naba bexoshana
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- You don’t chose your parents, you don’t chose your family
- You don’t chose, either, the sidewalks of Manilla
- Paris or Alger, to learn to walk
- To be born somewhere
- To be born somewhere, for the one who is born
- It’s always a hazard
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- There’s some barnyard birds and some passing birds
- Who know where their nest is, whether they come back from travel
- Or they stay at home, they know where their eggs are
- To be born somewhere
- To be born somewhere, it’s to leave when you want
- To come back when you leave
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Are people born equal in rights
- At the place where they’re born
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Are people born equal in rights
- At the place where they’re born
- Are people born the same or not 2
- Abantwana bayagxuma, becahselana bexoxa
- You don’t choose your parents, you don’t choose your family
- You don’t choose, either, the sidewalks of Manilla
- Paris or Alger, to learn to walk
- I was born born somewhere
- I was born somewhere, please let me this landmark
- Or I lose memory
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Are people born equal in rights
- At the place where they’re born
- Are people born the same or not
- Buka naba bexoshana
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Are people born equal in rights
- At the place where they’re born
- Are people born the same or not
- Buka naba bexoshana
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
- Nom’inqwand’yes qwag iqwahasa
Notes :
- In France, there’s two ways to get the French nationality (nearly) automatically. There’s the “right of blood” and the “right of the ground”. In the first case, you have French parents, therefore you have the French nationality. In the second case, you’re born in France (even from parents who are not French), then you’re considered French and you get the French nationality at your majority (at 18 years old). If you’re not born in France and you don’t have French parents, you have to live in France during several years, and so on and so on, I don’t really know the procedures but of course it’s more complicated. And generally the right (and especially the alt-right), and all of those who revendicate a sense of French “identity” and want to preserve it, would like to diminish the “right of the ground” to keep only the “right of the blood” (to be French, you gotta have French origin). It is what began to happen in 1986 with the Pasqua law, that aimed to reduce immigration by reducing the “right of the ground”. At the same era, the Front National (an alt-right party created in the 70’s) began to make significant electoral scores. So, partly as a reaction to that, there was an important antiracist movement in France in the 80’s, and this song belongs to it.
- The end of the previous line (“n[aissent]”) is also the beginning of the following one (“[Est-ce] que”), this sound is used for both worlds.
French Music into English 