VV (2) - The Para Song

David Morris fqmorris at hotmail.com
Tue Oct 24 19:24:20 CDT 2000


Fragments of the "Para Song:"
----------
"Demain le noir matin,
Je fermeai la porte
Au nez des annees mortes:
J'irai par les chemins.
Je mendierai ma vie
Sur la terre et surre l'onde,
Du vieux au nouveau monde...
----------
Tomorrow, the black morning, I close the door in the face of dead years.  I 
will go on the road, bum my way over land and sea, from the old to the new 
world....
----------
Depuis que je suis ne'
J'ai vu mourir des peres,
J'ai vu partir des freres,
Et des efnfants pleurer...
----------
Since I was born (said he) I've seen fathers die, brothers go away, little 
children cry...."
----------

These two verses are all that we have of the song, which must be important, 
reintroduced and expanded after a 12 page span, sung and taught by Paola.  
She is conveying a message to those sailors and drifters like Benny.

The song is about a purposeful traveler:  He has chosen to travel, "closing 
his door to the past."  Is he a drifter like Benny?  That might be implied 
by his "bumming his way over land and sea."  But is he a purposeful 
"drifter?"  Do his travels have a direction?  Yes, "from old to new world."  
His direction is along the compass-points of TIME, or maybe CREATION!  He 
has "closed the door in the face of dead years."  Forward!  Next!  New!

But the second verse adds to the meaning of the journey's purpose.  We know 
from GR that his voice is lamenting the War, the Kingdom of Death.  But as 
Paola says, "All you have to do is be born" for these facts to be.  We are 
born into WAR.  That is our heritage, our past, our "dead years."

Are our "new world" years to be any different?  GR would say not, but hasn't 
the Para dedicated his journey to a different direction?  He's "closed the 
door."  Drifting might be that new direction.

David Morris
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