The South

The poem below was triggered by a few words I read in a newspaper article about Gaza, the West bank and olive trees. Once it was written down, I had a feeling of “déjà vu”. I thought I had read this somewhere before or heard something similar. I wondered if what I had produced had been written before already by someone else!

It finally came back to me after a few days.

When I was in my teens, I heard a song on the radio during a road trip. It was a French song called “Le Sud” by Nino Ferrer, a Franco-Italian singer, songwriter, and actor.

He originally wrote the song in English but was forced by his record company to come up with a French version. It ended up being his most famous work in France.

It already was what you would call an “oldie” by the time I first became aware of it, as it was first released in 1975. I took to it, and really enjoyed both the melody and the lyrics, even though it was not the type of music I would have listened to back then.

It was over a decade later that I read somewhere that the song had been inspired by Lebanon, where civil war had just started. I am not sure it is true, but the song does include a reference to war, which is inevitable, the songwriter says, as people get bored when all they have is happiness.

I think it’s those last part of the lyrics that my poem reminded me of. The civil war in Lebanon or wars elsewhere all have the same result: the end of a peaceful way of life in a country that could feel like paradise otherwise.

I have included a link to the song in French at the end of my poem, and a translation of the song lyrics as well if you are interested.

(I do think the song lyrics are much better than my poem, but I’ll let you be the judge of that!)

You could have sworn

A poem by Noor Mahal

You could have sworn this country was
The South of France
With its leisurely pace
Its carefree life

You could have sworn this country was
Somewhere in a corner
Of Provence
With its sunshine and olive trees

You could have sworn this country was
The South of France
Except for the bombs
The hunger and the graves

You could have sworn this country was
Somewhere in a corner
Of Provence 
Except for the lack of peace

You could have sworn this country was
The South of France
Except for the ruins
Of buildings and lives

You could have sworn this country was
Somewhere in a corner
Of Provence 
Except there was no lavender
Only purple blood stains on the streets