2007 August « maria cecilia

Rachel’s Wedding Song

A very dear friend got married earlier this month. It was a beautiful late afternoon ceremony, at a hilltop chapel overlooking a volcano that is surrounded by a lake. Beautiful music from a double string quartet, a wonderful chorus of voices, one of the country’s top opera divas (Andion Fernandez), and an equally brilliant singer-friend (Ivy Violan) who sang a very soulful rendition of the wedding song (which I am featuring in this post) — love and music go hand in hand, always.

Hymne à L’Amour (Hymn to Love fr.) is a popular French song originally performed by Édith Piaf. The lyrics were written by Piaf and the music by Marguerite Monnot. It was recorded on 2 May 1950. It has been redone in English as “If You Love Me (Really Love Me)”. Piaf apparently wrote the song as a tribute to the man she considered the love of her life; French boxer Marcel Cerdan, who died in a plane crash in 1949. – from Wikipedia

Hymne à L’Amour

Le ciel bleu sur nous peut s’effondrer
Et la terre peut bien s’écrouler
Peu m’importe si tu m’aimes
Je me fous du monde entier
Tant qu’l'amour inond’ra mes matins
Tant que mon corps frémira sous tes mains
Peu m’importe les problèmes
Mon amour puisque tu m’aimes

J’irais jusqu’au bout du monde
Je me ferais teindre en blonde
Si tu me le demandais
J’irais décrocher la lune
J’irais voler la fortune
Si tu me le demandais
Je renierais ma patrie
Je renierais mes amis
Si tu me le demandais
On peut bien rire de moi
Je ferais n’importe quoi
Si tu me le demandais

Si un jour la vie t’arrache à moi
Si tu meurs que tu sois loin de moi
Peu m’importe si tu m’aimes
Car moi je mourrais aussi
Nous aurons pour nous l’éternité
Dans le bleu de toute l’immensité
Dans le ciel plus de problèmes
Mon amour crois-tu qu’on s’aime
Dieu réunit ceux qui s’aiment

English Translation by Pristine Ong:

Hymn To Love

The blue sky may fall on us
And the Earth may collapse
As long as you love me, little matters
I couldn’t care less for the world

As long as love fills my mornings
As long as my body quivers under your touch
These problems matter little,
My love, as love as you love me

I would go the ends of the world
I would dye my hair blond
If you asked it of me
I would take the moon from the sky
I would steal a fortune
If you asked me to
I would desert my country
I would leave my friends
If you asked that of me
One could well laugh at me
I wouldn’t mind what you asked me to do
I would do anything
If you asked me to

If life takes you away from me one day
If you die, if you are far away from me
It does not matter, as long as you love me
For I will also die

We would have eternity
In heaven
Where we will have no cares or worries
My love, do you believe in our love?…
…God reunites all lovers!

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on August 27, 2007 at 1:47 am Comments (1)

Grief

How does one write about this?

I started to write this blog two weeks ago. I can’t seem to go further. But I must.

We worked closely with him. All three long weekends, on two trips to China since June of this year. On my last night, he was happily hosting friends at the bar that his group had set up and managed… providing a “safe space” for gay men that side of Yunnan province and launching HIV prevention programs from there. I sang onstage for him and his friends, at his request. He was so happy and proud. They all danced as I sang. And he kept snapping pictures with his fancy camera, just as he had been doing in the workshop sessions. I said goodbye later in the night and we pledged to see each other in a couple of months, when I would return to China.

That was the last image I would have of him… waving back at me as I rode the taxi…

I traveled back to Kunming on that Monday morning. And he was also somewhere on a road out, in another car. And he met a fatal accident.

Li Gang. Leader, brother, doctor, colleague, friend. He will be missed but his inspiration will linger. May he find eternal peace.