Mom You Left
On this autumn morning as the mist rises, leaving the smoking stones to dry in the sun,
In the distance our dear Pyrenees appear in majesty like an illumination,
The acid smoke from the surrounding wood fires mingling with the peppery aromas of the vegetation,
Give the Arize countryside an atmosphere of a honey melancholy spell.
Mom when you got to know each other, after the war, Dad called you Lili,
Peasant daughter of Ariège, your parents gave you the pretty name of Noëlie,
You were over 20 when your love let you leave the earth,
To join La Poste and help the Postman-Receiver as an official.
More than 50 years you have lived by his side in your almost hundred years of life,
Dad left before the year 2000, for more than 20 years you dreamed of his company,
In 2020 at the protected Ostal of Daumazan, you escaped the Spring Corona,
But in the second wave of November, the Covid in a few days swept you away
When your love and tenderness came over me,
My soul was flooded with great gentleness,
Today you're gone, on the parchment my words slip,
Written for You, Mom, with the ink of my heart.
Mom every month we had great pleasure to see each other at the Ariégeois,
The rest of the time, the phone allowed us to chat in our dialect,
We often spoke of my 400 strokes when I was young as a "poulissou",
And we laughed together when you said to me, "You showed us my goddaughter!"
When the time clock showed your years,
This very long journey at the counter of your age,
My human heart and my poet's pen,
Mom, thought one day you would change shores.
Your chime, Mom, rang the end of the pilgrimage,
Your body, tired from Covid, surrendered to the Lord,
Your gaze, Mom, went out at three o'clock,
Silently closing the shutters of your face.
Mom, I shared your joys and your torments,
Your heart letting go has initialed the last page,
Your Book of Life has simply closed
On your chapters engraved before the great passage.
The angels came to look for you with their team,
Your soul, Mom flew to Heaven,
You left me the keys to your love and your courage,
Of your kindness and your eternal youth, too.
Luis Mariano sang "Mum, the most beautiful in the world", you loved her,
And Didier Barbelivien "Mum over there you will dance on the violins of your past",
Even far from my eyes Mom, you will always be close to my heart,
To you the glory to accompany you with the song of the Protestants in chorus
Mom your sun, made way for your Star in the night,
Ninety-eight springs you gave to Life,
I became your little boy in the storm again,
Always be my landmark and my light!
You have just joined Dad among the blessed without age,
You left for "Martrou", this fall which shines,
Your next hundred years heralded a delicious omen,
You will always be my Mother, as long as the Light is the Life!
Thanks to Marco the poet of Vallon de Marcillac for allowing me
to adapt part of my poem with the one he made
for his 96-year-old mother "Lélette".
For this "Great Journey" I found that this magnificent
saxophone interpretation of "Jerusalema" would allow
share with you a moment of meditation, the version
currently sung indicating in a completely different context:
I don't belong here
My kingdom is not here
Protect me
Walk with me
Guy PUJOL dit l’ARIÉ…..JOIE