Alan Stivell
Human Kelt

 

Reflets, Adskedoù, Reflections

 

   Reflets, Adskedoù, Reflections
(Feat. Murray Head, Robert Le Gall)
 
Alan Stivell lyrics »

 

 

My very first pro album (in 1970) was called "Reflets" eponymous of the opening song.

After the "preface" that had been the single Son archistr - Brocéliande, I wanted to show immediately that, if my approach to defense and illustration of Brittany and Celtic culture is central, I think it important that it fits in the great existential and essential questions of humans.

Reflections is a question or an observation: or we make the effort of respect (I do not say that we do it totally), respect for others, respect for the planet; or our technical progress and nature will take revenge on us.

Singing mostly in Breton, I do not ostracize and that's why I used my mother tongue, French.

 

Here, as in some other titles, I describe more than I write. A kind of landscape where I visualize several parallel shots, vibrating one and the same feeling.

First, the threat (from which I can not evacuate a biblical relent) of a rather inescapable apocalypse. The air and the earth and, above all, ourselves, vanquished by water and fire. A certain rage, but especially sadness to know that there is no fatality: it is above all the human being who decides it, not by supposed Christian sins, but by a simple suicidal egocentrism.

Some believe they see in it the bitter observation of an agonizing Brittany. Even if I did not think about it in the first place while writing it, this subject obsesses me enough to accept the idea.

More trivially, others may see failures in love, or more broadly in personal and relational life.

But that's good for me the first theme that dominates.

 

To reinterpret it, it needed motivation. It was first the acceptance of Murray Head for a new version of this song simply written in French. This time trilingual, Murray having taken charge of the Saxon adaptation. And he sang it beautifully. I have also kept most of my original text, while adding an introduction in Breton.

 

 

REFLETS, REFLECTIONS, ADSKEDOù

muzik : Alan Stivell pozioù : Alan Stivell - Murray Head

 

Sawet n’eus ‘n awel
War zouar hor bodigell
Ha sawet ‘n eus an awel
War ‘n diwe’añ arched

        And the wind rose up with force
        Against our land of foolish pride

        Then the wind blew fast and loose,
        Till everyone had died

De larmes en fleuves, de fleuves en torrents, de mers en océans,
        From tears shed tears for the last deluge
        And still we know not why

Mille soleils ont flamboyé, couleur de nos idées,
        But the wind can brush away the last whisp of smoke

        Of tears aflame in flames of blood an incandescent sky
De larme en larme, au soir ultime, jamais nous ne comprîmes

Et le vent s’est levé sur notre terre d’orgueil
        Then the wind blew fast and loose, till everyone had died

De larmes en flammes, en flamme sang, nuages incandescents,
        (In flames of blood an incandescent sky)
De larmes en larmes, au soir ultime jamais nous ne comprimes
        (Never we know not why)