Le déserteur

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Le déserteur is a chanson written by the French writer Boris Vian in February 1954, the melody comes from Harold Berg. In addition to Boris Vian himself, numerous artists have sung this song, including Marcel Mouloudji , Serge Reggiani , Richard Anthony , Dan Bigras, Leny Escudero, Dédé Fortin, Esther Ofarim and Joan Baez . There are translations into German by Gerd Semmer , Hans Diebstahler, Erich Aurich (sung by Zupfgeigenhansel , among others) and Wolf Biermann , who was thebest song of the yearwith his 1983 version (on the album Im Hamburger Federbett ). In 1973, Franz Hohler published Der Dienschtverweigerer (on the album I Glaub jetz hock i ab ), a translation into Swiss German.

When the song was first played on the radio, Paul Faber, a member of the Seine department , was so shocked by the lyrics of the song that he asked for it to be censored. In response, Boris Vian wrote the famous open letter Lettre ouverte à Monsieur Faber . The broadcast of the song by radio stations was banned until the end of the Algerian War in 1962.

shape

The text of the chanson The Deserter consists of 12 stanzas of 4 verses each with embracing rhymes . The total of 22 rhymes consist of 6 so-called poor rhymes (rime pauvre) , which means that the last two accented sounds of two lines have a (nasal) vowel as a common phoneme: présid ent - t emps .

In addition, there are 14 rimes suffisantes (sufficient rhymes), here not only the vowels rhyme, but also the following consonants: recev oir - s oir .

So-called rich rhymes are rarely used in French poetry (rimes riches) , at least one consonant and the following vowel are the same: en semble - res semble .

The first and last verses of a stanza consist of six feet and end with a masculine rhyme. On the other hand, there is a feminine rhyme at the end of the two inner verses, each with seven feet.

What is striking about the melody of the chanson is that it contains some repetitive elements, but does not actually have a refrain. The cheerful rhythm, which sometimes resembles the marching music of soldiers, is in stark contrast to the content of the poem.

content

In a letter to the President (historically René Coty ), a soldier directs a partly polemical , partly family- historical , partly dialectical-critical argument for the planned non-compliance with a military conscription order . It creates a certain tension. It discharges itself as he invites others to follow his example. Vian defended himself against the designation of the song as a protest song during his lifetime.

"I have not written an anti-militarist song, it is just a song intended for civilians."

- Vian

An early version lacked the pacifist character that he brought in at the suggestion of Mouloudji and, together with him, mainly changed the last stanza, which initially spoke of the speaker's shooting training. Performances by Vian and other performers have often been disrupted or undermined by nationalists. As a result of the increased popularity of the nationalist-populist union for the defense of merchants and craftsmen by Pierre Poujade, which entered parliament in 1956 and in the u. a. the young Jean-Marie Le Pen was a member, the friction intensified and led to several scandal and finally to censorship by the French authorities. The song was previously discussed in the international press and broadcast on Belgian television on August 27, 1955.

context

The deserter is one of the chansons belonging to the genre poésie engagée or chanson engagée . These songs sparked numerous non-violent and anti-militarist movements among the French population, who had not yet forgotten the horrors of World War II. The deserter was published on May 7, 1954, when France suffered a crushing defeat during the Indochina War in the Battle of Điện Biên Ph,, which ended French colonial rule in Southeast Asia. Since the Algerian war had just started at the same time, this chanson became a protest song for a whole generation. The "Campaign Against Conscription" used the song in 1990 in their actions.

literature

  • Boris Vian: the deserter. Chansons, satires and stories . Wagenbach Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-8031-2400-X .
  • Philippe Boggio: Boris Vian. Biography . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1997, ISBN 3-499-13972-3 .
  • Pierre Saka: La chanson française à travers ses succès . Larousse, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-03-508399-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.antiwarsongs.org/canzone.php?lang=it&id=1#agg68
  2. ↑ http://www.antiwarsongs.org/canzone.php?lang=it&id=1#agg660
  3. ↑ Ralfs Kruschdelkischdle: Zupfgeigenhansel ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , May 16, 2013 (with reference to YouTube video: Der Deserteur - Zupfgeigenhansel, kampflieder.de ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ralfskruschdelkischdle.wordpress.com
  4. ↑ http://www.antiwarsongs.org/canzone.php?lang=it&id=1#agg2507
  5. ↑ http://mikiwiki.org/wiki/Lied_%22Der_Dienschtverweigerer%22_%28Franz_Hohler;_Boris_Vian%29