4 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A
Un Canadien Errant (The Lost Canadian) Lyrics
Un Canadien Errant
Banni de ses foyers,
Parcourait en pleurant
Des pays etrangers.
Parcourait en pleurant
Des pays etrangers.
Un jour, triste et pensif,
Assis au bord des flots,
Au courant fugitif
Il adressa ces mots:
Au courant fugitif
Il adressa ces mots:
"Si tu vois mon pays,
Mon pays malheureux,
Va dire a mes amis
Que je me souviens d'eux.
Va dire a mes amis
Que je me souviens d'eux.
O jours si pleins d'appas,
Vous etes disparus...
Et ma patrie, helas!
Je ne la verrai plus.
Et ma patrie, helas!
Je ne la verrai plus
Banni de ses foyers,
Parcourait en pleurant
Des pays etrangers.
Parcourait en pleurant
Des pays etrangers.
Assis au bord des flots,
Au courant fugitif
Il adressa ces mots:
Au courant fugitif
Il adressa ces mots:
Mon pays malheureux,
Va dire a mes amis
Que je me souviens d'eux.
Va dire a mes amis
Que je me souviens d'eux.
Vous etes disparus...
Et ma patrie, helas!
Je ne la verrai plus.
Et ma patrie, helas!
Je ne la verrai plus
Song Info
Submitted by
softasfire On Jun 02, 2006
More Leonard Cohen
Hallelujah
Famous Blue Raincoat
Suzanne
First We Take Manhattan
Alexandra Leaving
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
A wandering Canadian, banned from his hearths, travelled while crying travelled while crying in foreign lands.
One day, sad and pensive, sitting by the flowing waters, to the fleeing current he addressed these words: to the fleeing current he addressed these words:
"If you see my country, my unhappy country, go tell my friends that I remember them. go tell my friends that I remember them.
O days so full of charms, you have vanished... And my native land, alas! I will see it no more. And my native land, alas! I will see it no more.
What a glorious song. Everyone should be forced to hear its greatness.
Its an old French Canadian Folk song, its about pro-French rebels being expelled from Canada after the English took over. He seems to be proud of his French heritage. (see the Partisan)
Just read I'm Your Man, a wonderful biography of Leonard Cohen, and it got me thinking about this gem of a song. I think, to respectfully disagree with Winters, that Cohen always felt himself an outsider, given his Jewish, English-speaking upbringing in predominantly French Montreal/Quebec. I think he chose this lyric, in French, as a way of expressing many complicated feelings he had about his homeland, from affection to alienation, and perhaps much in between the two.