Le Courage des Oiseaux (The Courage of Birds), 1992
Album: La Fossette ("The Dimple")
Album: La Fossette ("The Dimple")
Like many of Dominique A’s songs, personal experience inspired this piece. In his autobiography (“Ma vie en morceaux,” Flammarion, 2018), Dominique recounts his life through the prism of 26 songs that name and crystalize each chapter of his story. This song was its first chapter and his first hit song.
It was 1989. Dominique was 21 and living with his parents near the town of Nantes. One winter, he returned from a walk in the frigid cold where he heard birds chirping in the icy wind. He was contemporaneously on the off-ramp from a complicated, first-time, amorous relationship so the idea of courage was top-of-mind. Back in his room, the song’s title and refrain came to him: “Si seulement nous avions le courage des oiseaux qui chantent dans le vent glacé.” He wrote it in a notebook and laid it in a drawer to finish later. As indicated in his Profile, words matter for Dominique. The song title “le courage des oiseaux” overstates birds’ intentionality but it highlights their survivability in the face of hardship compared with the often sorry consequences of human behavior. Birds cannot assess fear, risk or uncertainty, but they are hardy and adapt under the impulse of environmental circumstances.
Dominique released the song in a minimalist, lo-fi version on his album “La Fossette” (“Dimple”) (1992). The album itself was Dominique’s debut and only the third album launch by the indie record label Lithium (1991-2004). In naming his album “La Fossette,” Dominique chose an expression of humility regarding its status and content.
Dominique framed the song as an intimate (“je” and “tu”) rhetorical monologue directed to an absent person. The opening words set a tone of alarm: “Dieu que cette histoire finit mal!” (“God, this story ends badly!”). The narrative describes a loss of understanding about the reasons to love, from which there predictably flows a torrent of sorrow. We turn our backs on each other and can no longer see or understand one another. The final line of the second verse invites many interpretations: “Si c’est ainsi qu’on continue, Je ne donne pas cher de nos peaux” (“If we continue that way, I won’t give a nickel for our hides”). The memorable refrain, repeated 5 times, nails the theme: “Si seulement nous avions le courage des oiseaux qui chantent dans le vent glacé” (“If only we had the courage of the birds that sing in the icy wind”). Contrasting the resilience of birds with much of human behavior was the theme of the song.
The song has evolved musically in successive versions over the years, ranging from acoustic live sets to symphonic arrangements. Not despite, but perhaps because of, the shaky audio and vocal quality of its first pressing in 1992, it legitimized minimalism and became a cult piece in the emergence of “la nouvelle chanson.” Many people consider it a spark that ignited the French “nouvelle chanson” movement during the 1990-2000s. Dominique himself recorded subsequent versions on his 2007 album “Sur nos forces motrices” and again in 2024 on the 2-disc set of 28 songs named “Quelques Lumières.” It became an iconic keystone of his repertoire. Among other subsequent “covers,” French pianist Maxence Cyrin later arranged and recorded a solo piano version of the song on his 2015 album Novö Piano 2
Much later, the song’s title became a touchstone for birders like Pete Dunne and David Allen Sibley in their 2024 book “The Courage of Birds.” Those authors highlight the resilience and survival strategies of birds in the face of climatic (and other) threats. Beyond birds, the expression is sometimes employed as a metaphor for long-suffering, vulnerable parties who persist in the face of hardship. Pushing the concept even further is a more systemic interpretation of the song’s significance as a plaint over the evolution of humanity-at-large when compared with the determined resilience of birds in the natural world. Assuredly, many consequences of human behavior promise to “finish badly” (“Dieu que cette histoire finit mal!”) compared with the courage and resilience of birds that may be small and frail but nevertheless adapt and survive to sing in the icy wind.
In the archival version below, there are 2 Verses, separated by a Pont and a Refrain, and an Instrumental Interlude followed by the repeated Refrain. The quick-time music tempo adds a touch of unsettling urgency. Its throbbing base marks the lumbering pace of winter with an overlay of high-pitched guitar picks that resemble bird beaks clacking in the chill air. The limited number of guitar chords (4) repeat in the same sequence throughout. The version below is from a “France 2” nightly broadcast of “Le cercle de minuit” in May 1995." As in much of Dominique’s early work, it is a trimmed-down solo guitar & vocal performance.
|
French Lyrics
Verse 1 Dieu que cette histoire finit mal On n'imagine jamais très bien Qu'une histoire puisse finir si mal Quand elle a commencé si bien On imagine pourtant très bien Voir un jour les raisons d'aimer Perdues quelque part, dans le temps Mille tristesses découlent de l'instant Pont Alors… qui sait ce qui nous passe en tête Peut-être… finissons-nous par nous lasser? Refrain Si seulement nous avions Le courage des oiseaux Qui chantent dans le vent glacé Verse 2 Tourne ton dos contre mon dos Que vois-tu? Je ne te vois plus Si c'est ainsi qu'on continue Je ne donne pas cher de nos peaux Pont Parfois… qui sais ce qui nous passe en tête Peut être… finissons nous par nous lasser Refrain Si seulement nous avions Le courage des oiseaux Qui chantent dans le vent glacé Refrain Si seulement nous avions Le courage des oiseaux Qui chantent dans le vent glacé Dans le vent glacé Instrumental Interlude Refrain Si seulement nous avions Le courage des oiseaux Qui chantent dans le vent glacé Refrain Si seulement nous avions Le courage des oiseaux Qui chantent dans le vent glacé Dans le vent glacé Dans le vent glacé Dans le vent glacé |
Translation (Pendergast)
Verse 1 God, this story ends badly! We never imagine very well That a story could end so badly When it started so well We imagine, however, very well Seeing one day the reasons to love Lost somewhere, over time A thousand sorrows flow from that moment Pont So…who knows what goes on in our heads Perhaps …we end up getting tired of it? Refrain If only we had The courage of the birds That sing in the icy wind! Verse 2 Turn your back against my back What do you see? I see you no longer If it’s like this that we continue I won’t give a nickel for our hides Pont Sometimes…who knows what goes on in our heads Perhaps…we end up getting tired of it? Refrain If only we had The courage of the birds That sing in the icy wind! Refrain If only we had The courage of the birds That sing in the icy wind! In the icy wind! Instrumental Interlude Refrain If only we had The courage of the birds That sing in the icy wind! Refrain If only we had The courage of the birds That sing in the icy wind! In the icy wind! In the icy wind! In the icy wind! |
NB:
Je ne donne pas cher de nos peaux: Literally, this means “I won’t give a lot for our skins/hides.” “Donner cher” means “to give dear” or “pay a lot.” Figuratively, the phrase indicates a hopeless situation that invites many interpretations (e.g. I won’t give a lot for our chances, we are not long for this world, we are “goners,” etc.).