Haiti

Translation aka does this help? : Haiti, my country, wounded mother I'll never see. My family set me free. Throw my ashes into the sea. My cousins, never born, haunt the nights of Duvalier. Nothing stops our spirits. Guns can't kill what soldiers can' t see. In the forest we are hiding, unmarked graves where flowers grow. Hear the soldiers angry yelling, in the river we will go. All the still-born children form an army, soon we will reclaim the earth. All the tears and all the bodies bring about our second birth. Haiti, never free, I'm (?) not afraid to sound alarm. Your children left, in those days their blood was still warm.

Sorry if I got some parts wrong.

I am a lower middle class graduate student living a married life, working an ass-kicking, spirit-lifting job (high school science teacher). I am also a native puertorrican. I get her, even though we here in the island have not experienced close to genocidical conditions in the pass 450 years, even though we have not experienced close to cataclismical events in the past month. I am a hispanicamerican living in the caribbean, and i am glad that a song like this exists. It reminds me that there is an intense afrocaribbean spirit close to my home. This is a great band, refreshingly poetic. My favorite song in the album is Haiti, and right next to it Wake Up (It reminds me that life is a dialectical roller coaster, full of sweetness, sadness, despair, growth, strife, and bits and pieces of what is quite frecuently called happiness).

Oh, also, incase you are wondering who Duvalier is, think of an opressive brutal dictator regime of Haiti and you'll get a good start.

Régine Chassagne's parents fled from Haiti in 1960, and this is her tribute to her country. Beautiful, especially the French. It really is. "All the tears and all the bodies bring about our second birth."

This album is gold.

The translation to the last verse goes like this: Haiti, never free, don't be affraid to sound the alarm your children are gone in those days their blood was still warm.

it fits because the cd is all about their lives, and questions and experiences, this was part of Régine Chassagne's life. <3

i_love_camp -- music is art, art is subjective..

Enjoy your trip.

"Well, I myself have been to Haiti and this song really only looks at the negatives! The people there are some of the nicest and happiest people you'll meet. I went down there last Apriul to help build a school and I'm going again this april!! Super excited!"

Perhaps if you had been there while the Duveliers were ruling and your family was hunted down and killed by their secret police, you would have somewhat more mixed feelings about Haiti.

Clearly, this is about all of the unborn children killed under Duvalier's regime hiding in the rivers and jungles of Haiti, in spirit form, waiting until they've absorbed enough souls to become allpowerful. At that point, they plan to arise as a vengeful army of undead Haitian children and conquer the earth.

I think the contrast between the mood of the music and the mood of the lyrics actually correspond with the country of Haiti itself. While it may seem like a peaceful tropical place, it's actually plagued with these deathly problems that are almost unexpected, or covered up by the characteristics of the land.