Latgalistikys kongresu materiali, III. 2011. - Latvijas Universitāte

‘Above the round table in the great kitchen, / For the tenth time since the
morning, / Gaston is playing patience, / Camille, lively, is getting dressed
like an Eskimo, / To go back to Belgium.’
(“Sint Nicolas 1940” ‘St Nicolas’s Day 1940’, p. 78)
The recalling of his in the homeland remained family is felt everywhere
and it occupies the major part of the anthology. He recalls his family
(his father, his mother, his brother) both with tenderness and lucid
irony. The author, doubtless often by pure modesty, soothes his nostalgia
with some humour and even with some kind of self-derision.
Such an attitude is one of the main features of many Walloons’ character.
This can be found in both quotations below.
I r’boute du keûr a tous lès-ôtes / Alôrs qui s’ keûr da li s’ûse a chaque
momint, / Va mwins´ d’ène place a l’ôte pou n’ né / Moustrér qu’il-è-sténèrvè,
/ Si dit seûr èt cèrtin qui s’ fi vike / Alôrs qui l’angouche / Come
ène étricwèsse / Lyi broye si stoumac´.
‘He bucks up all the others / While his own heart is constantly wearing
out, / Moves less often from a room to another / In order to conceal his
nervousness, / Claims that he is sure that his son is alive / While a feeling
of anxiety / Like pincers would do / Is crushing his stomach.’
(“Pa” ‘My father’, p. 36)
Dji m’ rapèle, maman, quand vos stitchîz / Li rosti après l’awè toûrnè
saquants côps / Dins l’ bûre avou l’ pwinte di vo coutia, / Èt qui vos dijîz:
« Atincion a vos pîds! » / Paç’ qui dji lès-aveu su li stûve, / Dji lîjeu Jules
Verne, Gustave Aymard.
‘I remember, mother, when you put / The roasting meat after turning it
over several times / In the white butter with the point of your knife, / And
when you said: “Be careful of your feet!” / Because I had laid them on the
stove, / I was reading Jules Verne, Gustave Aymard.’
(“Mame” ‘My mother’, p. 40)
This ironical nostalgia coupled with self-mockery is found entirely in
the recalling of his childhood; a happy childhood, that of a group of kids
who could enjoy together a form of freedom that was conceivable in the
beginning of the 20th century in a popular semi-urban environment.
Li chèf dèl binde routeut l’ preumî, / Lumant lès poûyes èt lès peumîs, /
Tchimîje, djaquète, brayète ô lôdje, / Al grosse morbleu, skeuweut d’ssus s’
d’rî, / Dins-ène gazète sicrotéye ô vî, / Li crousse ô bûre èt al sirope.
‘The leader of the band walks in front, / Watching for hens and apple
trees, / With shirt, jacket, fly wide open, / Around his back careless rolling,
/ Wrapped in a newspaper stolen from his father, / The crust of bread with
butter and syrup.’ (“Li Sôte” ‘The Sarte’, p. 70)
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