And again et encore…Resist!

armistice-paint

Last November I wrote a blog called ‘Resist’. This was in reaction to the Paris attacks of November 13th 2015, events that left France, and the world, reeling after the single deadliest terrorist attack in French history with 130 dead and 352 wounded.  More than 1 700 people have now been officially recognised as victims of what happened on that dreadful day.

One year later, the events of 2016 have shown that resistance is more necessary than ever.

22 March:  in neighbouring Belgium, Islamic jihadists attacked the airport and the metro in Brussels. 32 killed, 300 injured.

13 June, Magnanville: a police chief and his wife were butchered by Larossi Abballa. The couple’s 3-year-old son was forced to watch his mother die as the event was recorded on Facebook Live, with the murderer claiming allegiance to ISIL and promising to kill infidels at their homes. ‘I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with the boy yet,’ he said.

July 14th Nice: in the middle of the 14th July celebrations Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlelan drove a truck into a crowd of revellers. 86 killed, 434 injured. Islamic state claimed responsibility.

26 July St Etienne du Rouvray: two Islamic state ‘soldiers’ entered a church in a small Normandy village, took hostages, forced the priest to his knees and cut his throat.

Timeline on http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33288542

Last week in a survey carried out by the Red Cross, 55% of people in France said that they feared ‘finding themselves in a situation which posed a dangerous risk’ as against 38% in 2010. 70% of those polled cited the events of 2015/2016 as an influential factor.

Tonight, Saturday 12 November, the Bataclan reopens for its first concert since last year’s tragedy. Sting gives a concert to “remember and honour those who lost their lives…” and to “celebrate the life and the music this historic theatre represents.”

I would like to echo his words, remembering and honouring not just those who lost their lives in November 2015 but also the victims  of  2016 and adding to the musical tribute the magnificent lines of  Resistance poet Paul Valery, quoted in my blog of November 2015, below.

RESIST 

In July I wrote a blog about Paris. It began:

“Just back from two weeks in Paris, the most beautiful and evocative city on earth…City of Light, City of Love… the Seine and its bridges.”

I then went on to talk about a poem:

“…the melancholic poem about love and time by Guillaume Apollinaire that every student of the French Baccalauréat knows by heart, ‘Le Pont Mirabeau’.

On November 13 in Paris a gang of murdering cowards hiding behind Kalashnikovs turned their weapons on families and children enjoying an evening at the restaurant, on football fans enjoying a friendly game, on excited music fans enjoying a rock concert. Their aim was to turn the City of Light into the City of Darkness, the City of Love into the City of Hate and Fear.

It’s doubtful that these brutal, ignorant murderers had ever read Apollinaire’s poem, or indeed any other work of literature. They had surely never thrilled to the verses of Shakespeare, wept at the poetry of Homer; never shared the sufferings of Jean Valjean or Edmond Dantès.

And others like them, lashed to the ideology of terrorism and tyranny, will never, ever, understand why Allied planes, flying over occupied France in World War 2, dropped not just weapons to the maquis: fluttering down from the sky came thousands of copies of a poem, which would continue to inspire and uplift those men and women risking their lives in the fight against Nazi tyranny.

Its title was ‘Liberté, j’écris ton nom’ , Freedom, I write your name.

Written by poet and Resistance member Paul Eluard in 1942, its celebratory stanzas end with the following lines:

Et par le pouvoir d’un mot

Je recommence ma vie

Je suis né pour te connaître

Pour te nommer:

Liberté.

And through the power of one word

I begin my life again

I was born to know you

To name you:

Freedom.

This weekend the Eiffel Tower was cloaked in darkness as the world mourned the victims of November 13th. But the darkness was temporary.

Last night the lights came on again as the Lady put on the colours of the tricolor demonstrating once again the regenerative power of one word:

Liberté.

In memory of the victims of the terrorist attack of November 13th, 2015.

A complete version of Eluard’s poem can be read at:

http://www.poetica.fr/poeme-279/liberte-paul-eluard/

Paul Eluard Poésie
Paul Eluard Poésie

6 thoughts on “And again et encore…Resist!”

  1. Thanks for bringing my attention to that story, Laurette. Thankfully, the words and stories that inspire us are immortalised in our literature, and they have pride of place, while the others — the words that spread nothing but poison — die out with the men who propagated them.

    1. Thanks for your comment Anita. Excellent point that you make about the immortality of inspirational literature compared to the poison. I like to imagine the members of the maquis picking up the copies of Eluard’s poem and feeling a renewed sense of hope. And congratulations again on your wonderful book ‘Miro’.

  2. Thanks for this post. My thoughts go out to France. There are too many horrors that fill this world. Remembrance and honor are important for those lost to violence and those suffering from such loss, but we should never let it set us back. Fear is what they count on. Fear deepens anxiety, trust, sometimes turning us against ourselves. Keep freedom in our souls. That’s something they could never take away from us.

    1. Thanks so much for your comments Denise, so thoughtful as usual and I agree entirely. Strangely enough I have just finished reading a wonderful novel called ‘Miro’ by A.E. Nasr which really put this message across in the most moving way. So let’s hear it again for
      ‘Liberté’! xx

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