Oh Canada, land where I am nestled in spite of myself. Oh Canada, land of none of my ancestors.
My ancestors with a glorious past came from France and spoke a language that became “the language of our country”, as Yves Duteil so aptly sings. They were from New France. Then they were from Lower Canada. They were conquered to be better reborn in the Quebec where I was born.
But, as Claude Gauthier wrote so well in his song The most beautiful journey : “I have made the most beautiful journey / from my childhood to today / without a goodbye, without a piece of luggage / without a regret of nostalgia / I am of ten children at the table / I am of January below zero / I am of America and France / I am of unemployment and exile / I am of October and hope / I am a race in peril.” But: “I am our liberation / I am Quebec, dead or alive.”
The national anthem of Canada was composed in 1880 by two French Canadians, Adolphe-Basile Routhier for the lyrics and Calixa Lavallée for the music, to commemorate Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, the French Canadian holiday. Thus, this song was, at the beginning, a French-Canadian patriotic song.
We know the rest: it was translated into English, and not in a literal version of the original text. In fact, the lyrics have been modified, even diverted from their meaning in its English version. It’s almost a betrayal, almost a second conquest.
So instead of singing theOh Canada 1er July, I always have immense pleasure in singing The most beautiful journey by Claude Gauthier, who like me is “of French Quebec nationality”.
Quebec is and remains my beautiful and great land of welcome. Canada has become this land of reefs that surrounds my nation.