Le plat pays

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Le plat pays (dt. The flat land ) is a French-language chanson by the Belgian singer Jacques Brel from 1962. Brel sang it in Dutch under the title Mijn vlakke land (dt. My flat land ) .

The song is Brel's homage to his Belgian homeland West Flanders . In it he describes the barren, wind-swept, sometimes desolate landscape. Since this type of landscape continues in parts of the Netherlands , the Dutch version of the chanson is very popular in the neighboring country.

Brel wrote the French text himself, the Dutch version is by Ernst van Altena . Brel was inspired by the poem “La Venoge” by the Swiss writer Jean Villard (known as “Gilles”), in which he describes the course of the Venoge in the canton of Vaud .

There are various translations into German. With Mein Flanderland , Klaus Hoffmann created a version that is close to the Brel original .

literature

  • Sara Poole: Brel and Chanson. A Critical Appreciation . University Press of America, Lanham 2004, ISBN 0-7618-2919-9 .

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