Dan rij ik naar Parijs en onder een brug trakteer ik alle clochards op wijn en op drugs

Met dit zinnetje begon een discussie op msn met een Fransman. Hij dacht dat ik een statement maakte over de Franse politiek. Toen ik hem uitlegde dat het een zinnetje was van een liedje van Bart Peeters, begonnen we muziek uit te wisselen. (Intussen hield hij vol dat het politiek gezien nog zo geen slecht idee zou zijn.) Hij liet me later weten dat hij het moeilijk vond het liedje te appreciëren omdat hij geen clue had van wat er gezegd werd. Daarop zond ik hem een mail met een poging tot een vertaling van en een apologie voor het liedje. Uittreksels hieronder.

all because of you

if one day you left me
then i would let you go
if no way to talk it over existed

then i will get lost in the cold
and that would then be all your fault
then i would get myself drunk each day
and only eat chocolate anymore

did i ever admit to you
that i suffer from fear of desertion
being honest lasts, although it is only shortly
the longest

then i will get lost in the cold
and that would then be all your fault
then i would get myself drunk each day
and only eat chocolate anymore

then the chickens don't get food
and the cats don't get fodder
then the decadence is lurking with wet lips
i live off biscuits and whisky
off gin and beer
i hook it, i hook it
i go on the loose forever

wa! then i buy a porsch
or such a bad jaguar
i call myself benoit or i call myself george
and i dye my hair blond
then i drive to paris
and under a bridge
i stand all clochards
wine and drugs

if one day you left me
then i would for sure let you go
if no way to talk it over existed

then i will get lost in the cold
and that would then be all your fault
then i would soak myself each day
and only eat chocolate anymore

then i chat up bad chicks
moreover, get them pregant
and then when those whenches give birth
i don't even want to see them babies
i put black ants with red ones
until no single one survives
and i tell all children that santa
has terminal cancer

i infiltrate in the zoo
inject heroine in a giraffe
i only visit old spinsters
and wheedle their legacy out of them
i take my brains out of service
i like all the dingy jokes
i vote for zero tolerance
and buy a kalashnikov

if ever you left me
then i will really let myself go
if no way to solve it existed...

this singer, bart peeters, is a famous presenter on the flemish public tv channel. i can't stand his way of presenting. it is as if he is acting a role all the time, he makes stupid jokes, get's his own level so low and moreover, has a really irritating voice. but many people like him. in fact, he is quite popular. although only few people know he is a singer too. this means that he is not profiting on his reputation of tv presenter. he is a singer because he likes writing songs and singing. and he has a special talent for it too, although he will never admit that. as a singer, he has got a good deal of the begian modesty. his first cd was called: "the little disc of bart peeters", suggesting it was just an occasional recording of what he is occupied with in his leisure time. most of the songs on this disc were about his personal life, often very touching but still down-to-earth and in simple language, just the product of honest emotional flows. (and when i say emotional, i don't mean sentimental, but moving in a rather dry way) 'allemaal door jou' is from his second cd, which is called 'smarter than the singer'. the first song is the title track and gives a number of instances in which the song is smarter than the singer who never learns from his mistakes and won't take good advice. it is so recognizable to all people who are honest with themselves.
i think i made the point now that the songs of this exceptional singer are very down-to-earth samples from the daily life of a self-respecting, yet self-knowing, (self-)critical intelligent and life-enjoying reflecting human being. yet, each song on its own is original in topic as well as in language and music. the song "allemaal door jou" expresses, as i told you before, the singer's fear of the possible moment when his wife would leave him. it is not a love song, yet it expresses love, it is not a melancholically sad song, yet, it expresses melancholy and it is not a joke, yet unmistakingly funny. moreover, it expresses also fear, threatening, desperateness, realism. but above all, it is so honest, so plausible (although the deeds he suggests are exaggerated, it's the feeling that matters and that is not exaggerated at all).

Ik vond dat het liedje het best waard was dit op het www te zetten. Wat vinden jullie van het liedje, voor hen die het kennen en voor hen die het niet kennen: probeer er aan te geraken voor bovenstaande redenen!

Week 10 - Friday

This morning starts like Monday morning: History, Literature and Truth. Tacitus today. The lecture was nice. Just nice. Afterwards I don't remember very well what I did. Probably I went to the library to check my e-mails and do some reading. Oh, I also went to Woolworths to collect a £3 copy of the dvd of Sense and Sensibility. I do remember that we had lunch in the Bistro, Emmanuel, Sam, Soline and me. I remember also that we had a very good laugh, but I do not perfectly recall what it was about. So I'll just cherish the memory of the laugh. Afterwards an afternoon followed which threatened to be just the same as Thursday afternoon. Again, I spent at least 4 hours wandering around in search of shoes, a backpack and a teapot. I ended up in Shoefayre next to the Co-op Department Store. They are selling everything because they will close down the shop. I still don't believe it myself but in that shop I found beautiful cheap shoes (£10), an even more beautiful rucksack (£3.33) and a perfect, special teapot (£11). My day was made. Now I could at least wear my skirt tonight to go to the Glow-festival. We had an appointment at 6.30 at the Monument to start our Glow-tour from there. Glow is part of the NewcastleGateshead Winter Festival. Around the city buildings are lit in a special way with a magenta-pinkish light. Arriving at the Monument I found that much more people had turned up than we had invited. Apparently there had been a kind of e-mail chain. Less positive was that the group (about 20 people) consisted only of Germans and French people (speaking French all the time...) and two Belgians: Sam and me. We started off to the first attraction: open air cinema. If it had been for me, I would have stayed for at least one film or returned there after the whole trail to watch all the rest of the films, but the others wanted to go on. So we went. I hope all of us noticed the Space Invader in that road. Anyway, the rest of the trail was very nice too. We saw the cathedral, the Castle Keep, the Millennium Bridge and Baltic, the All Saints Church and much more in a different light for once, a pink-magenta one. For one night, you would nearly believe Newcastle was really a beautiful city! And of course we tried to spot all the Vampire Rabbits that were lighted around the city. These were the children's part of Glow. A pinkish rabbit, quite scary-looking, stared down on you from several buildings. We took loads of pictures, haunted each other with our magenta glow-sticks and admired the open-air art. (Of the pictures I hope to put a selection on this website soon.) After the trail, some of us went eating Portuguese chicken in the Gate, others went to Burger King. In the meantime, I was slowly falling asleep. So afterwards I went straight home. But I could honestly not keep myself from watching Sense and Sensibility in my bed. What a film! What a happy day.

Week 10 - Thursday - a dull day

Lecture about Vergil again. Ok. I spent the rest of the morning writing about my week at the library computer cluster. Lunch with Soline and Emmanuel in the bistro (too expensive!). The whole afternoon I was wandering around the city in search of new shoes, a backpack and a teapot. Found nothing! The evening made my day. Joshi came to talk over loads of things and afterwards we watched ‘Love Actually’. I can’t say much more about it than that Hugh Grant and Colin Firth are really good-looking. It was nice entertainment. That’s it. That's it.

Week 10 - Wednesday

I awoke at about 8.30 when Helena, my landlady, went out. The alarm of the house (all the houses in Fenham have alarms!) always makes this funny noise when the door opens. No problem, let’s read some more Vergil. Aeneas has left Dido and wandered about on the Mediterranean for a while. Now he has come ashore in Italy. In Book seven, king Latinus wants to marry his daughter to Aeneas, but her fiancé Turnus is not quite happy with that… At ten I fell asleep again and had wonderful dreams (however, I don’t remember them) before my alarm clock officially started the day at eleven. Normally I had a Jane Austen lecture at 10 but it was cancelled. Took a quick shower, suddenly realising that I still couldn’t use my bike and had to reserve half an hour for walking to the uni. This walk takes me through several park greens (some with paths, some very muddy…) and is quite enjoyable! Prof. Moles said loads more about book 7 of the Aeneid than I did above. Interesting things, really! He knows an awful lot about it. Moreover, I really like his style of teaching: he nearly always has hand-outs for us on which the trail of the lecture is out-lined as if it was in his brain: just words and phrases one after another.
I quickly checked my emails in the library and then did some Latin. In the evening I reprogrammed the television at home so that Helena could record ‘Love Actually’ for me. I was going to the social, tonight in Enigma. Talked to Pierre again, evaluating the recovery of our limbs from the weekend. I met another French guy and practised my French for a change! Anyway, it was a very agreeable evening. Too agreeable to futilize on the Internet by some necessarily dull phrases.

Week 10 - Tuesday

Note: I can see that my posts are often a bit long. I promise, I'll make them shorter from now on!

Early rising again to be on time for a seminar on The Alchemist by Ben Jonson at nine. Still with sleepy head carrying on for the seminar on Persuasion (Jane Austen) at ten. Just in time remembered that I had to moderate the discussion there. Ok, all ended well. Then with sleepy head to the Robinson Library to write my account of Monday. Lunch at twelve with James and Sam (Belgian-Libanese). Nice. Lecture on Jane Austen and Walter Scott by prof. Claire Lamont. Normally very interesting and exciting, but now boring: all the time about the exam that I don’t have to do. Again an hour’s time. I really don’t know what I did then anymore. Only interesting thing so far that day was now to come: the lecture on Bartholomew Fair (Ben Jonson) by professor Tom Cain, our lecturer. From a quarter to 5 until a quarter passed six I read the online Standaard newspaper. Then set off for the Monument to visit the Christmas market with Julia, Solene, Verena, Cathrin, Beatha and Kristian (both Norwegian). Had my hands washed with something really nice-smelling. Had a German Bratwurst and some of those Dutch poffertjes. Bought some delicious Dutch goat-nettle cheese. Went off home to read some Vergil for next day’s lecture. Off to bed quite early (still not wholy recovered from the weekend…).

Week 10 - Monday

This Monday morning my alarm clock woke me a bit earlier then it is used to do on Mondays. For today, I had to walk to the uni, instead of cycling. I got the first flat tyre just when I arrived in Carlisle after doing the Hadrian’s Cycleway last weekend and the second when coming out of the cathedral at the end of this weekend, after the evensong. Walking to the university takes about 25 minutes.
The morning sun was determined to brighten a day which I was not really very looking forward to: a blue toe, hurting shoulders, hurting feet and being very tired are not the perfect conditions to start a new week. However, the first lecture passed quite well. In History, Literature and Truth, we rounded of examining Sallust’s account of the conspiracy of Catiline. Dr. Wisse, from Holland and with a hot jacket potato in his English, which is otherwise really good, again succeeded to raise my interest.
During the next hour I checked my emails in the cluster room of the Old Library Building, where it is hot as in a swimming pool, and I prepared my next lecture: Interpretation of Latin Texts. We first finished Petronius to switch to Tacitus afterwards. Prof. Donald Hill is old. He attempts to be funny, which is funny. There are only five students in this lecture: 3 English girls, a German guy and me. Otherwise there is not very much to say about it.
My usual lecture at twelve was cancelled. This hour’s spare time I got from that, I consider the happiest hour of the day. First I went to the Student’s Union. In front, I found a little book market. This had been there for a couple of times in October too. The bookseller still remembered me as the one who was always in search of ancient classics. I found the book of Sallust that we just finished in HLT. Bought it. I found also a Penguin edition of three ancient literary critical treatises (Aristotle, Horace and Pseudo-Longinus) and the Penguin Golden Ass of Apuleius. For 8 pounds, it was all mine. The bookseller looked in wonder at me buying three books again and was seriously concerned when I told him I had to get back to Belgium by plane… Buying books is a good thing to make my day. Though, it always makes me sad too, for so many books are standing out there which I did not buy. This time my sadness was especially due to one unbought book: George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London. The copy was not very neat anymore, so I didn’t take it. Happy and longing and thinking about a long life before me in which I would have more than 100 occasions still to buy books, I walked of to Northumberland Street. Had a quick look in the Priceless shoe shop to immediately stroll out of it again in horror of all these cheap foot-devastating shoes. Still, I will buy some today or tomorrow. In front of M&S (Marks and Spencer) a man was singing and playing the guitar so well that for fully fifteen minutes I stood next to him and listened. Waking out of my daydreaming I launched myself into the modern world again and walked off towards the Monument. I tasted some French salami at the Christmas market, looked in wonder at a label announcing that this man was selling “overheerlijke Nederlandse poffertjes, met gratis beleg, ook om mee te nemen.” Another one sold Belgian pralines, without any label of a brand which made me rather suspicious. Some Polish people offered gorgeous amber jewellery!
One o’clock. I was supposed to be in front of the Student’s Union right now to have lunch with Soline (F), James and Anthony (both E). Running past the guitarman I managed to get there at five past. George (Libanon) joined us in the basement. I stayed with Soline until three o’clockish to talk over our weekends. Then time was high to return home and do some schoolwork. Fussing about a bit in the house, I spent my time doing nothing and started off baking pancakes at fivish. Half six was the time when I set off for Kirkley Lodge, where I was going to have a Pride and Prejudice-night with Solene (F), Cathrin (G), Verena (G) and Julia (G). I was on the wrong platform however and missed the metro, had to wait for 13 minutes for the next one. I was at Kirkley Lodge only at about half seven. I met Pierre (F), who also stays in Kirkley, on my way and told him that I was going to visit Julia. He convinced me he did not know her, whereas she is actually his neighbour and he talked to him a couple of times. Pride and Prejudice was gorgeous of course. Walking back to Fenham with Solene was really nice too. Again we met some Geordies trying to ... I don't know what they try to achieve in fact; they are just being drunk and silly. Straight to bed now!