Saturday 7 April 2007

Shabbat-o-rama: Serge Gainsbourg

Serge Gainsbourg - Le Sable et le Soldat (Chanson pour Israel)

During the Six Day War, Serge Gainsbourg* wrote a song for Israel. Gainsbourg never openly showed his support for the State of Israel, and the song never got released and remained unknown to the public until 35 years later. Listen to it here. Shabbat shalom!

"Oui, je défendrai le sable d'Israël,
La terre d'Israël, les enfants d'Israël;
Quitte à mourir pour le sable d'Israël,
La terre d'Israël, les enfants d'Israël;
Je défendrai contre tout ennemi,
Le sable et la terre, qui m'étaient promis
Tous les Goliaths venus des pyramides,
Reculeront devant l'étoile de David."

In english, that would be something like:

"I will defend the sand of Israel,
The land of Israel, the children of Israel;
Should I die for the sand of Israel,
The land of Israel, the children of Israel;
I will defend against every ennemy,
The sand and the land that were promised to me
All the Goliaths from the pyramids,
Will retreat in front of the star of David."

3 comments:

Jack Steiner said...

He sounds like quite a character.

Miss Worldwide said...

I made it sound like he was a dirty old man, but he was very intelligent and sensitive, and he truly revolutionalized french music and influenced most of today's young songwriters. Recently, a tribute CD was released, in which such huge bands as Franz Ferdinand, Marianne Faithfull, Placebo, Portishead, Jarvis Cocker, Tricky, The Kills, Feist, etc, sing his songs in english.

He was amazing, we miss him very much.

Anonymous said...

...please where can I buy a unicorn?