On 22 Sep 2003 at 14:51, Jean-Marc Perreault wrote:

> If I may, this slogan has been misinterpreted over and over. It is
> true that many Quebec residents probably view this "Je me souviens"
> slogan as one linked to separatism. But it is not the true meaning of
> it.
>
> It really refers to the following:
> <<Oui, nous nous souvenons. Nous nous souvenons du passé et de ses
> leçons, du passé et de ses malheurs, du passé et de ses gloires.>>
>
> If I were to attempt a litteral translation, it would go as follow:
> "Yes, we remember. We remember the past and its lessons, the past and
> its sorrows, the past and its glories"
>

I have to admit that with my limited French and the absence of my
bilingual wife to help me out, I'm at a disadvantage here. However,
my reading of the website essay cited by Jean-Marc is that the above
phrase is an _interpretation_ of the three words "Je me souviens" and
is not the source from which it is taken.

As the website relates, a frequent claim is that those three words
derive from a poem by Eugene Tache, which says [in translation]

 "I remember that born under the Lily, I have prospered under the
Rose."

If true, this is highly ironic, as the Lily symbolizes France and the
Rose, England. The meaning of the motto would then be that
Francophones have prospered under the British conquest. This is
surely a strange slogan for a separatist government to adopt. In
fact, it's just another story.

The official Quebec government site at
http://www.drapeau.gouv.qc.ca/devise/devise.html takes on the issue.
My reading of what it says there (again, pleading poor French) is
that while it was definitely Eugene Tache who had those three
enigmatic words carved into the stone of the Legislative Assembly, no
one knows for certain what he meant by them.  But everyone has a
theory,  including the government bureaucrat who was responsible for
that website.

My theory is that the separatist government knew that no one knew,
but they also knew what they wanted people to think they meant  (to
remember the centuries of grievances against the English). So they
changed the slogan.

Stephen
_______________________________________________________
Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.              tel:  (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
Department of Psychology             fax: (819) 822-9661
Bishop's University                 e-mail:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lennoxville, QC  J1M 1Z7
Canada

Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
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