Te souviens-tu?
Te souviens-tu? (English: Do You Remember?) is a French song composed in 1817 with lyrics by Émile Debraux and music by Joseph-Denis Doche.[1] A variation was produced by Pierre-Jean de Béranger. It is also known under the title T'en souviens-tu?. Composed during the Allied Occupation of France following the country's defeat in the Napoleonic Wars, it has a former officer of the Grande Armée run into an old comrade who once saved his life begging in the streets. He sings of the glories once achieved by Napoleon's troops in their past campaigns.
In 1870 a satirical song Paris pour un beefsteak was composed using the same music but different words during the Siege of Paris.[2]
Lyrics
[edit]French | English Translation |
---|---|
Te souviens-tu, disait un capitaine, |
Do you remember, said a captain |
Te souviens-tu de ces jours trop rapid
e |
Do you remember those too quick days, |
Te souviens-tu que les preux d’Italie |
Do you remember that the valiant men of Italy |
Te souviens-tu de ces plaines glacées |
Do you remember those icy plains |
Te souviens-tu qu’un jour, notre patrie, |
Do you remember that one day our homeland |
Te souviens-tu… mais ici ma voix tremble |
Do you remember?... But here my voice trembles,
|
Other Versions
[edit]The melody for "Te Souviens-Tu?" would later be used for the German anti-war song "Ich bin Soldat, aber bin ich nicht gern" [[de]](I'm a Soldier, but I don't like to be one), written in 1870 by Max Kegel.
From this song, Joseph-Denis Doche's tune was taken up and still used today for two Walloon songs that are very well known in dialectal Wallonia:
- Li trousers trawé [[(Le pantalon troué) by Charles du Vivier de Streel, which takes up the same canvas from the memories of a former member of the Grande Armée, originally from Liège.
- Lolote (wa), a popular love song by Jacques Bertrand, which has become a kind of regional anthem of the Charleroi region.
The tune is also taken up, from Lolote, by the Belgian students for bawdy songs: Le fusil, L'ancien étudiant and the song of the students of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of Gembloux.
References
[edit]Bibliography
[edit]- Day-Hickman, Barbara Ann. Napoleonic Art: Nationalism and the Spirit of Rebellion in France (1815–1848). University of Delaware Press, 1999.
- Rifkin, Adrian. Communards and Other Cultural Histories: Essays by Adrian Rifkin. BRILL, 2016.