Nina, you little minx

Now it's time to talk about love affairs. My love affair with Nina Simone has been thriving for about 10 years now. In retrospect this really isn't a long time but it has been a good 10 years. At first I was attracted to her for the "grate-y-ness" of her voice. But that was before I learned to hear, I think. Now I listen to her and I cannot see how in the world I ever thought she sounded like an old man who smoked too many cigarettes. I had to have been naive or just plain deaf. How could I mistake a voice that has such an emotional range for just one thing? Let me interrupt myself here by stating that in all honestly, I know nothing about music. Well, virtually nothing. My boyfriend plays bass and I still have a hard time hearing a bass line. I have always been more visual. I still don't know the difference between melody, harmony, rhythm, chords, etc. I know, it's pretty pathetic, I'll work on it someday. But, I do know what I like. I do know what moves me. And Nina has me in the palm of her hand with every song.

So, since I am thinking of her, singing her songs in my head, imagining her version of Pirate Jenny and Mood Indigo on stage, I am brought back to one of my favorites: Ne Me Quitte Pas.

Which brings me to my other dream of Paris and a warm baguette that is screaming, literally screaming to be dipped in a butter garlic sauce that is the remains of an escargot plate. None of my friends have had escargot before and as for myself, I haven't had it since I was a teenager but the memory is a fond one. Escargot pictures are to come in the future.

For now, here is a link for a video of "Ne me quitte pas" performed by the one only Nina Simone (lyrics listed below in francais et anglais):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI8F6DbB2cE&feature=related

Ne me quitte pas
Il faut oublier
Tout peut s'oublier
Qui s'enfuit déjà
Oublier le temps
Des malentendus
Et le temps perdu
A savoir comment
Oublier ces heures
Qui tuaient parfois
A coups de pourquoi
Le coeur du bonheur

Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas

Moi je t'offrirai
Des perles de pluie
Venues de pays
Oÿ il ne pleut pas
Je creuserai la terre
Jusqu'après ma mort
Pour couvrir ton corps
D'or et de lumière
Je ferai un domaine
Oÿ l'amour sera roi
Oÿ l'amour sera loi
Oÿ tu seras reine

Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas

Je t'inventerai
Des mots insensés
Que tu comprendras
Je te parlerai
De ces amants-là
Qui ont vu deux fois
Leurs coeurs s'embraser
Je te raconterai
L'histoire de ce roi
Mort de n'avoir pas
Pu te rencontrer

Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas

On a vu souvent
Rejaillir le feu
De l'ancien volcan
Qu'on croyait trop vieux
Il est paraät-il
Des terres brulées
Donnant plus de blé
Qu'un meilleur avril
Et quand vient le soir
Pour qu'un ciel flamboie
Le rouge et le noir
Ne s'épousent-ils pas

Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas

Ne me quitte pas
Je ne vais plus pleurer
Je ne vais plus parler
Je me cacherai là
A te regarder
Danser et sourire
Et à t'écouter
Chanter et puis rire
Laisse-moi devenir
L'ombre de ton ombre
L'ombre de ta main
L'ombre de ton chien

Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

Don't leave me
We must forget
All we can forget all we did till now
Let's forget the cost of the breath
We've spent saying words unmeant
And the times we've lost hours that must destroy
Never knowing why everything must die at the heart of joy
Don't leave me don't leave me
Don't leave me don't leave me

I'll bring back to you the pearls of rain
From a distant domain where rain never fell
And though I grow old I'll keep mining the ground
To deck you around in gold and light
I'll build you a domain where love's everything
Where love is king and you are queen
Don't leave me don't leave me
Don't leave me don't leave me

Don't leave me
For you I'll invent
Words and what they meant only you will know
Tales of lovers who fell apart and then fell in love again
There's a story too that I can confide
Of that king who died from not meeting you
Don't leave me don't leave me
Don't leave me don't leave me

And often it's true that flames spill anew
From ancient volcano's we thought were too old
When all's said and done scorched fields of defeat
Could give us more wheat than the fine April sun
And when evening is nigh with flames overhead
The black and the red aren't they joined in the sky
Don't leave me don't leave me
Don't leave me don't leave me

Don't leave me
I will cry no more
I will talk no more hide myself
To look at you and see you dance and smile
And hear you sing and laugh
Let me be for you the shadow of your shadow
The shadow of your hand the shadow of your dog
Don't leave me don't leave me
Don't leave me don't leave me