Got sand in your eyes, read this.

On 29 Jan 2007, at 7:51 PM, Raphael Couzet wrote:

After chatting about Brel; and me being me, I HAD to google the
English translation of "Ne Me Quitte Pas".

It is by far the most emotionally intense song I have ever heard; akin
to a punch in the throat swiftly followed by an eye rinse with mace.
Well anyway, I was surprised to see that there are no English
translations out there that do the song justice.

I realised that the English speaking world is bereft of this painfully
passionate masterpiece.
So here is my effort! I hope you will appreciate this song more after
this and will never even think of deleting it again!

TIP: copy the lyrics into the mp3 tag using iTunes and impress you
friends with your wordly knowledge of the Belgian music scene of the
60's!

:D
Raphael.

"Ne me quitte pas" by Jacques Brel, only English translation by Raphael Couzet

Don’t leave me
We must forget
Everything can be forgotten
That already flees.
Forget the time
Of misunderstandings
And the time lost
To find out how to
Forget those hours
That sometimes killed
With blows of “Why?”
The heart of happiness.
Don’t leave me

I, I will offer you
Pearls of rain
From countries
Where it does not rain.
I will dig the earth
Even after my death
To cover your body
With gold and light.
I will make a realm
Where love will be king
Where love will be law
Where you will be queen
Don’t leave me

Don’t leave me
I will invent for you
Words without sense
That you will understand.
I will talk to you
About those lovers
Who saw twice
Their hearts leap into flames.
I will tell you
The story of this king
Who died from
Never being able to meet you.
Don’t leave me

We have often seen
The fires spew anew
Of the ancient volcano
That we thought too old.
There are, they say
Scorched lands
Yielding more wheat
Then the best of Aprils.
And when the evening comes,
So that the sky may be set ablaze,
The red and the black,
Marry they not?
Don’t leave me

Don’t leave me.
I will no longer cry.
I will no longer speak.
I will hide there
Watching you
Dance and smile
And hearing you
Sing and then laugh.
Let me become
The shadow of your shadow
The shadow of your hand
The shadow of your dog.
But, Don’t leave me.

Listen to the French version.


Raph, I've put it back on my iPod.

An Inconvienient Truth - Please click it

My sister told me that the apple trees at our orchard in Poland had just bloomed. This means 4 months earlier and in the middle of a Polish winter, which should see temperatures as low as -20 C. Things have turned upside down, and we all know it.

Al Gore (yeah, not my favourite man neither, but keep going) together wt a great crew of movie people made "An Inconvient Truth", highly awarded at Sundance and apparently a very impactful and emotionally-touching movie.

Download it, buy it, or the least you can do is click the widget below to make your pledge.

Sri Lanka - Colombo, A War Zone in Suspension.

I start my journey in Colombo. Arrived at 2am, the airport resembling the LCC (low cost carrier) airport in KL, ie a warehouse. The streets are empty, there are 2 military checkpoints before we reach the hotel. An 18-year-old boy with machine gun pointing at the cab asking why I’m here, asking me for my passport. Colombo is a war zone in suspension. Barb wires, dust, pot holes, never-repaired buildings, more machine guns. In the morning I call the railway station to get a ticket to Kandy, the hill-station, anxious to get out of Colombo. The Train Uncle asks me to get there to ‘talk’. It looks like a complicated process to get a train ticket, which it turns out, it is. The ‘Tourist Office’ manager makes it subtle but clear that if I don’t stay at his guest house in Kandy I don’t get on today’s train. “Didn’t you get pissed off?” I get asked later. “No, I’ve lived in Asia for too long. That’s the way it is. His salary is what I spend on shoes each month.” I wake up in Kandy at Train Uncle’s guest house, surrounded by rolling hills, tea bushes and the so-longed-for breathe of fresh air. The cook makes me a splendid Srilanka breakfast of string-hoppers, coconut chutney and red beans. He used to work at the 5-star hotel up the road, lost his job after the tsunami, tourism is not an industry here anymore. I’ve seen no more than 5 tourists since I got here. The bombings in Jaffna aren’t helping.

Sri Lanka - Meditation in Nilambe

I find a meditation centre I want to disappear to. I want to switch off, not talk, not interact. The past 4 months have been very intensive and wore me out. I get dropped off at the centre by Nandika and his friend Nanda. Nanda has worked in the UAE for 4 yrs, saved USD 3.5K and bought a land in Kandy. He reflects on his ex-employers; lazy, mean, but the smile on his face overshadows these bad memories. He’s a landlord now, that’s like a cast progress. The three of us become good friends very quickly, I take the advantage and ask them about premarital sex. Nandika is 28 years old and says he’s still a virgin. They tell me how much they earn, what commissions they make from gem sales, they watch adult movies at Kanday’s-only illegal joint. They are both smart and genuine. It breaks my heart to see how much they aspire to have a better life but no means of getting there. They poke at my marriage to a Sri Lankan, tell me Tigers are no good to get married to. They are Singhalese.

I finally reach Nilambe, my meditation centre. I’m surrounded my pepper and tea plantations, my room overlooks it all. A Corsican monk takes me around, he’s been here for 2.5 years, came originally for 2 weeks. He asks me to spend 30 min with the centre’s dharmma. I find the man to lack charisma and I feel a bad vibe from him, so I avoid him for the rest of my stay. There is no electricity here. We get up at 4.30am to start the first meditation session at 4.45am. Tea and yoga follow. Breakfast is served at 8.30am, lunch is at 12.30pm. This is the last meal for the day too. There are several meditation sessions during the day, from 1-1.5 hours. The centre is a great platform to practice, not to learn meditation, as there is no guidance. I save my iPod’s battery to listen to some guided meditation tapes in my own time. I sleep 10-12 hours a day and feel like new life has entered my body. The food is strictly vegetarian, most vegetables are grown in the back yard. I forgot what organic food looks like, the ginger root looks so much smaller than what I get in HK.

Nilambe is a great platform – the shrine, the rooms, the library, the surrounding plantations and pine forest are something I take in every moment and remind myself how lucky I am. Total silence, total isolation, totally no electricity.

On Dec 24th I text my sister not to tell my family where I am, as there are no Xmas celebrations at a Buddhist centre. My family has their traditions, and I have too many to choose from.

It’s the simplicity that thrills me. I text Eric that I’ve accomplished absolutely nothing today and it feels great. We live a life where task completion equates to our worthiness.

Why meditate? It’s a skill no different than playing piano or tennis. Takes time and perseverance and the benefits are known to those who master it. Meditation is the foundation of Buddhism, Buddha means ‘awakening’. Remember how you first meet somebody, fall in love, the whole world looks wonderful, all your senses get awaken, you feel like you had a coke fix. This is somewhat similar. I read, listen to my iPod sessions, practice it and indulge in the new territories my brain is exploring.

In 5 days my interaction with people is contained to a few sentences and I like it this way. On my last night, we gather to talk why each of us is here. Tonight I realize that most people seek refuge from tragic life obstacles, need to decide what road to take. From mental health workers, NGO people, doctors, German Green Party members, to sheer addicted meditation freaks (did 20 10-day retreats in 1 year), rebuking the establishment. Silence is a good thing.

Sri Lanka - Getting Away from Silence

It was time to move on, I long for joy and interactions with people more on my own wavelength. I stop by Kandy for the day, indulge in an ayurvedic retreat centre for a few hours, then head for the Bodhi Tree, the very tree Buddha found Enlightment, I feel excited, thinking that maybe one day Buddhism will find a place in my heart. Nuwara Eliyah is my new destination – hiking, tea plantations, mountain biking, the vistas. It’s pretty here, but not as many ‘wows’ per kilometer as the Hilmalayas and the Balanese hills would offer. I go hiking for 7 hours around Nuwara Eliyah with Raja. He takes me to a daycare centre where the tea plantation workers drop off their children. I’m horrified. There are sarongs hanging down the ceiling with infants inside them, stranded by their necks to prevent them from moving, the piss stench is overpowering. The caretakers yell at the older kids, there are no toys for them play with. Perhaps brain development is not what they want here – the smarter they get, the harder it will be to keep them at these plantations when they grow up. I do not find any better way to console myself than getting them boxes of biscuits and chocolates from the nearest store.

Again, these parts of Sri Lanka are deprived of tourists. The only other person I get to travel with is a German girl. Her definition of being a strong person differ from mine, so we end up in a few heated discussions about men, women independence and relationships. I cut my trip short and move on to the beach, hungry now for parties, meeting people and letting my hair down. It’s the 31st of December today after all.