This is the incredible yet little known story of How One French Poem Helped Win the Second World War!
When the allies were ready to land on the coasts ofNormandy, they announced the news to the French Resistance by means of this poem, first published in 1866:“Chanson d’automne” (“Autumn Song”)byPaul Verlaine, one of the most famous poets of French language, belonging to his “Poèmes saturniens.”
→The first three lines of the poem, “Les sanglots longs des violons de l’automne” (“Long sobs of autumn violins”), meant that Operation (dubbed “Operation Overlord“) was to start within two weeks.
Les sanglots longs The long sobs
Des violons
Of the violins
De l’automne
Of Autumn
Blessent mon cœur
Wound my heart
D’une langueur
With a monotonous
Monotone
Languor
→These last three lines signaled that the operation was to start within the next 48 hours, thus giving the Resistancele feu vert(the green light) to launch all sorts of sabotage operations against the occupying Nazis. You can hear it here with the voice ofMarlene Dietrich.
To make it a bit softer to the ear, French singer Charles Trenet substitued the line “blessent mon cœur” (“wound my heart”) by “bercent mon cœur” (“lullmy heart”)
Comments:
Carmel:
Très intéressant, merci beaucoup:)
Kassovitz Artúr:
The musicalized version of the Hungarian trasnlation of the poem:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYnHA2vC_ms&list=UU2J_J7IkOmTr4wRHB7tgvEA&index=2&feature=plcp
Hichem:
@Kassovitz ArtúrMerci, Artúr!