Lyr Req: Far from Their Home (A Song of Grosse Ile

Subject: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Big Mick
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 10:01 AM

I get the gist of this lyric, but I wonder if someone can give me an exact translation? I have a small knowledge of Francais, but would appreciate the help. By the way, it is from the song "Far From Their Home (A song of Grosse Ile)" by Brendan Nolan. It is a very powerful song about the coffin ships, and the brave French-Canadians who worked so hard to save the sick Irish folks from the ships.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Big Mick
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 10:11 AM

I guess I should post the lyric I want translated, right? Jazus, Mick, to much of the craic and thoughts of alison distracting me. Here is the lyric I looking for help on:

Je m'appelle Leo Quinn
mes ancetres sont ici
Enterre/s sur Grosse Ile
qui fait face a/ ma ville Montmagny
Mes souvenirs ne sont que des fantomes
qui survollent et dansent dans le vent
Ils demandent qu'on se souviens d'eux
Meme si ce n'est qu'en chantant.

Thanks for the help.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Peter T.
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 10:26 AM

Dear B.M., Don't know the song, but here is a reasonable translation:

My name is Leo Quinn

My ancestors are here

Buried on Grosse Ile

Which looks over to (or is beside) the/my village, Montmagny

My memories are only ghosts

That hover and dance in the wind

They plead that someone remember them,

Even if only in song.

Yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Will
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 09:12 PM

Nice translation, Peter. Great verse.

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 09:53 PM

Which Grosse Ile are they talking about, Mick? the one in the Detroit River? Is there any more background anybody can give us?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Jack Hickman
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 12:26 AM

Grosse Isle is a small island in the St. Lawrence River just below Quebec City. From 1832 to 1937, it was a Canadian Government Quarantine station, and all immigrants to Canada passed through there. It is now a National Historic Site and also the home of the Irish Famine Memorial. During the years of the Irish Famine (1845-50), tens of thousands of Irish immigrants, fleeing from the terrible conditions in Ireland, crossed the Atlantic in coffin ships, and upon arrival, many of these poor people had contracted typhus and cholera. The western end of the Island contains a cemetery containing the remains of over 5,000 Irish emigrants, most of whom died without identity. It is truly a hallowed place, and well worth a visit by anyone with an interest in their Irish origin.

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Jack Hickman
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 12:31 AM

I should have included this URL in my last message. It gives the full story of Grosse Isle for those who are interested:

http://parcscanada.risq.qc.ca/grosse_ile/

Jack Hickman

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 01:08 AM

Thanks, Jack - we Detroiters can be a bit provincial, and forget there may be other places that use place names we think of as our own. French place names seem to have been used over and over again. I believe there are two places in Michigan (and one in Pennsylvania) called Presque Isle (which I understand means something like "not quite an island - referring to narrow peninsulas on Lake Erie, Huron, and Michigan).
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: FAR FROM THEIR HOME (A SONG OF GROSSE ILE
From: Big Mick
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 08:59 AM

I just got in from a very long 23 hours on the road to find this. Many thanks to you Peter T. for the lovely translation. It is even more beautiful than I thought.

Brother Jack, thank you for the URL to the website, I am going to visit it as soon as I get done here.

Joe, I don't think I can add much to what has been stated, other than to tell you that if you ever have the chance to see Brendan Nolan perform, you should. He is an excellent singer songwriter. In fact, I think that I will post the lyrics to "Far From Their Home" now.

FAR FROM THEIR HOME (A SONG OF GROSSE ILE)

Oh we left our homes and travelled, though many not know where we lie.
They said ’twas a land of promise, but few saw it with their own eyes.
For it's here on this sad lonely island, where the wind blows cold to the bone,
We rest in its soil forgotten, far away from our home

On the fourteenth day of June, our packet it set sail.
Down the eastern coast we wound, past Wexford and Kinsale
Till sadly the sunset faded gently from our eyes
And the lights of the south-west flickered away, as we said our last goodbye.

Oh, it's hard to describe the suffering, as this awful voyage began.
Two weeks out to sea, we had lost 10 or more as the fever took the strongest of men.
And the holds were battened for days on end, to stifle the sickness below.
While the waters of the ocean swallowed our dead, far away from their home.

(Whistle interlude)

Though our spirits they were weary, as the great broad river began.
And a whale rose up from the waters, as we sailed into this new land.
With its hillsides that sloped toward the shoreline and villages cradled within.
We prayed that these people could pity our plight, and find a new home for our kin.

Within sight of Grosse Ile, we were anchored far off shore.
For many more ships lay waiting, and we’d stay maybe five days or more.
For the lost ones outnumbered the living, and a terrible sight it was plain.
As a packet floated out in the bay, with its human cargo aflame.

And the sheds overflowed with the suffering, and their cries pierced the silence at night.
And these brave ones who tended these travellers, some paid with their lives in the fight.
And I’ve lost my own on this island and my own candle's near died away.
To have travelled so far on our journey, humble voyagers together we'll stay.

(Whistle interlude)

Je m'appelle Leo Quinn, mes ancêtres sont ici.
Enterres sur Grosse Île, qui fait face a ma ville Montmagny
Mes souvenirs ne sont que des fantômes, qui survolent et dansent dans le vent.
Ils demandent qu'on se souviens d'eux, même si ce n'est qu'en chantant.

There are no boats tied in the river, and the cross stands gaunt on the hill.
No wretched shadows trod from the shore, to the fever sheds now that lie still.
Just the white markers guard their memory, no names carved in granite or stone.
And the long grass waves to the wind as she blows, o’er these brave ones far from their home.
And the long grass waves to the wind as she blows, o’er these brave ones far from their home.

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Big Mick
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 09:04 AM

The song is in 3/4 time. I perform it with just a guitar and a Low D whistle. I have the guitar player do a 3/4 roll moderato and I play the interludes. It is a very powerful song.

All the best, Mick

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Big Mick
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 11:12 AM

Oh, and by the way, I really must change my initials. Joe warned me I would become BM and it has happened.***grin***

Mick

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 11:56 AM

I used to be BM (Macaulay) and now I'm BS. Don't know which is worse!

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 01:42 PM

If folks send in songs and really want their initials to become immortal, they should provide more than two, if possible. THings like BNMIV (for no middle initial) will work, as will things like BO'B. Anything to reduce ambiguity!

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Peter T.
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 02:28 PM

This is my initial apology (more to come?):

SMFIABMCYEFMPT*

*(sorry, my fault, I apologise, Big Mick, can you ever forgive me, P.T.)

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 02:56 PM

Dick, I always go by BJS, unless I'm marking some document as official BS.

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Big Mick
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 07:18 PM

Forgive you, hell I think it is great. But from now on it is BML.

ATB,

BMLFGLMWITTWAALSWJ

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From:
Date: 17 Oct 98 - 05:33 PM

I used to see Brendan Nolan play at the Old Dublin in Montreal. A fine gentleman with a great sense of humour. He once wrote a parody of City Of New Orleans which was about Maritimers taking The Ocean (a train) from Montreal to North Sydney, NS. It is quite funny and spot on. (Drunks, noisy singing, babies wailing all night, which is exactly how it was) I have it on a 45 which is the only thing I have by him.

He now lives in Florida, IIRC, and has a web site up. Don't have the URL. He now some CD's out. I haven't heard them but he did have a good voice.

There is also a Presque Isle in Maine, Joe, and they used to call Zug Island in Detroit The Presque Isle until they cut the New Channel and made into a Vraie Isle. There are River Rouges all over North America.

Big Mick, the next time you are in Montreal go to the Montreal side of the Victoria Bridge. If you are willing to risk your life crossing four lanes of traffic, in the median there is a large stone with a plaque on it commemorating the Irish whose bones they dug up when they built the bridge. Cholera victims in a common grave.

BTW, many of the Irish orphans in Quebec were adopted by French Canadian families, which is why you sometimes find Quebecois with Irish names. The former premier Claude Ryan was one such, although I don't know if he is descended from one of these orphans or from one of the many Irishmen who married Quebecois women.

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From:
Date: 17 Oct 98 - 05:47 PM

http://www.bwaldron.com/brendan/

That's Nolan's web site. In Canada, you used to be able to buy his CD's through http//www.bpm.on.ca with which I have no connection except for availing myself of their prompt and excellent service.

Joe, a short lesson -- how do I put the HTML diddlies in place so that one can just link to the URL rather than cut and paste?

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Oct 98 - 06:10 PM

Glad you asked, Tim. The United Church of HTML is always happy to accept new converts. Dan Mulligan gave an excellent primer in this thread, although I think it's better if you do not have quotation marks within links - they're usually optional. Let's see if I can give an example of exactly what you have to type:

<a href=http://www.paste.the.URL.here>type-reference-word-here</a>

Now, I hope this looks right when I post it.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Oct 98 - 06:17 PM

One of my favorite comic strips if For Better of for Worse, which comes from Canada. This week, they're talking about an Irish settler who had been quarantined for weeks on Grosse Ile. Without this timely discussion, I wouldn't have known what they were talking about.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From: Jack Hickman
Date: 17 Oct 98 - 07:46 PM

Just one more comment about the orphans mentioned by Tim above. Many of the orphans were adopted by Quebecois families, and it was the decree of the Archbishop of Quebec that these Irish children retain their own names. This was enthusiastically accepted by the adopting families. I'm personally acquainted with Brennans, O'Gormans, Bishops and O'Neills whose first language is French.

And to Joe's comment about the world's finest comic strip, I had always thought that Lynn Johnson drew a special version of her strip for Canadian consumption, but from your comments, I gather this is not the case.

Jack Hickman

Subject: RE: Transl: please, from a French Canadian
From:
Date: 18 Oct 98 - 10:13 PM

Click-here-for-Brendan's-web-page/