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A celebration of the mother tongue. Mary Ann Kennedy joins Sarah and in her native Gaelic asks her to sing in French the joy she feels when she sees the beauty of nature around Loch Leven. The French lyrics are a poem by Anna de Noailles. It remains Sarah's favourite French poem. She set it to music over 25 years ago but waited for a special occasion to record it. When Nick and Mary Ann both asked her in the studio to sing a track in French she had no hesitation and pulled out this song kept secret for so long. It is Sarah's contribution to the Gaelic language and it celebrates anyone who sings in their mother tongue. Mary Ann signs the chorus in Gaelic asking her to sing about her beloved glen and nature in French.
LARACH (L'EMPREINTE )
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Làrach do shòlais
An cànan d’ òige
’S tu nis a’ còmhnaidh ann –
Biodh d’ òran beò ’s a’ ghleann.
Je m’appuierai si bien et si fort à la vie,
D’une si rude étreinte et d’un tel serrement,
Qu’avant que la douceur du jour me soit ravie
Elle s’échauffera de mon enlacement.
La mer, abondamment sur le monde étalée,
Gardera, dans la route errante de son eau,
Le goût de ma douleur qui est âcre et salée
Et sur les jours mouvants roule comme un bateau.
Je laisserai de moi dans le pli des collines
La chaleur de mes yeux qui les ont vu fleurir,
Et la cigale assise aux branches de l’épine
Fera vibrer le cri strident de mon désir.
Làrach do shòlais
An cànan d’ òige
’S tu nis a’ còmhnaidh ann –
Biodh d’ òran beò ’s a’ ghleann.
Dans les champs printaniers la verdure nouvelle
Et le gazon touffu sur le bord des fossés
Sentiront palpiter et fuir comme des ailes
Les ombres de mes mains qui les ont tant pressés.
La nature qui fut ma joie et mon domaine
Respirera dans l’air ma persistante ardeur,
Et sur l’abattement de la tristesse humaine
Je laisserai la forme unique de mon coeur…
Làrach do shòlais
An cànan d’ òige
’S tu nis a’ còmhnaidh ann –
Biodh d’ òran beò ’s a’ ghleann.
Je laisserai la forme unique de mon coeur
LEAVING THE TRACE OF LOVE
The mark of your happiness
In the language of your youth
Now that it is your home -
Let your song be alive in the glen.
I will rest myself so hard upon this life,
I will hold it so fiercely.
That they take away the weetenss of the day
It will retain the the warmth of my embrace.
The sea so lavishly spread out across the world
Will keep along the course where its water wanders
The savour of my pain still acrid and salty
Rolling upon upon a flow of drifting days.
Somewhere between the hills
My blazing eyes will set the yellow gorse on fire,
While the cicada perched upon the smallest thorn
Will feel the depth and shriek of my screeching desire.
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The mark of your happiness
In the language of your youth
Now that it is your home -
Let your song be alive in the glen.
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The green of spring will come again to the field,
Bringing new leafy grass all along the ditches ,
And tremble at the touch of my hands
Fleeing like unseen wings.
Nature who ceaselessly was my joy and my home,
Will breathe me in and keep my everlasting lust.
Upon human despair and sadness I will leave
The unique mark and shape of my heart.
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The mark of your happiness
In the language of your youth
Now that it is your home -
Let your song be alive in the glen.
The unique mark and shape of my heart.
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