Barbara: L' Aigle Noir
L'Aigle Noir (The Black Eagle) (1970)
In this song, Barbara recounts an episode one day, or night, when she fell asleep next to a lake. Suddenly, a black eagle appeared with ruby eyes and a blue diamond on its forehead. It touched her cheek and slipped its head into her hand. She recognized it from her past and begged it to carry her back to her childhood days of gathering stars, lighting the sun and creating marvels. But the eagle flew away leaving her alone, cold and with nothing but sorrow.
Barbara wrote the music for “L’Aigle Noir” in 1970 based on text she had written several years before. It appeared as the lead song that year in an album of the same name and reportedly sold one million copies in 12 hours. Years later, in a 2015 poll in France, the song was voted the third most popular song in French history, after Renaud’s “Mistral gagnant” and Jacques Brel’s “Ne me quittes pas.”
The meaning of the song was obscure for many years until the publication of her unfinished memoir, written the year she died (1997) and published in 1998 under the title: “Il était un piano noir” (“There was a black piano”). That title arose from an incident during her 1964 visit to the German town of Göttingen when she successfully insisted on a black piano for her concert performance.
In the memoir, she revealed that her father Jacques had abused her when she was 10 years old. Observers have surmised that this experience, combined with the years of Nazi occupation in France, led to the fusion of imagery and narrative that appears in “l’Aigle noir.”
Since the 8th century, the heraldic black eagle (“Reichsadler”) used by Holy Roman emperors served as a symbol of German nationalism. The Nazi rape of entire populations, combined with the personal violation by her father, invests the song with disturbing symbolism.
Barbara sings in the version below. There are also excellent cover versions by Michel Sardou, Patricia Kaas, Florent Pagny, and others.
Un beau jour ou peut-être une nuit
Près d'un lac, je m'étais endormie
Quand soudain, semblant crever le ciel
Et venant de nulle part surgit un aigle noir
Lentement, les ailes déployées
Lentement, je le vis tournoyer
Près de moi dans un bruissement d'ailes
Comme tombé du ciel l'oiseau vint se poser
Il avait des yeux couleur rubis
Et des plumes couleur de la nuit
À son front brillant de mille feux
L'oiseau roi couronné portait un diamant bleu
De son bec, il a touché ma joue
Dans ma main il a glissé son cou
C'est alors que je l'ai reconnu
Surgissant du passé il m'était revenu
Dis l'oiseau, oh dis emmène-moi
Retournons au pays d'autrefois
Comme avant dans mes rêves d'enfant
Pour cueillir en tremblant des étoiles, des étoiles
Comme avant dans mes rêves d'enfant
Comme avant sur un nuage blanc
Comme avant allumer le soleil
Être faiseur de pluie et faire des merveilles
L'aigle noir dans un bruissement d'ailes
Prit son vol pour regagner le ciel,
Quatre plumes couleur de la nuit,
Une larme ou peut-être un rubis
J'avais froid, il ne me restait rien
L'oiseau m'avait laissée seule avec mon chagrin.
Un beau jour ou était-ce une nuit
Près d'un lac, je m'étais endormie
Quand soudain, semblant crever le ciel
Et venant de nulle part
Surgit un aigle noir
One nice day or perhaps one night
Near a lake, I fell asleep
When suddenly, seeming to pierce the sky
And coming from nowhere, arose a black eagle
Slowly, its wings extended
Slowly, I saw it twirling
Near me in a rustling of wings
As fallen from the sky the bird landed
It had eyes colored ruby
And wings the color of night
And on its forehead sparkling with lights
The crowned bird wore a blue diamond
With its beak, it touched my cheek
It slipped its neck into my hand
And then I recognized it
Rising from the past, it had returned
Oh Bird, oh please take me away
Let us return to our former land
Like before in my childhood dreams
To catch, trembling, some stars, some stars
Like before in my childhood dreams
Like before on a white cloud
Like before to light up the sun
To be a rain-maker and create marvels
The black eagle in a rustling of wings
Took flight to rejoin the sky
Four feathers with the color of night
A teardrop or maybe a ruby
I was cold, I had nothing
The bird left me alone with my sorrow
One day or was it a night
Near a lake, I fell asleep
When suddenly, seeming to pierce the sky
And coming from nowhere
Arose a black eagle
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