In Flanders Field
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Les cimetières flamands
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In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place: and in the sky The larks still bravely singing fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead: Short days ago, We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved: and now we lie In Flanders fields! Take up our quarrel with the foe To you, from failing hands, we throw The torch: be yours to hold it high If ye break faith with us who die, We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields |
Sous les rouges coquelicots des cimetières flamands,
Qui parmi les rangées de croix bougent dans le vent, Nous sommes enterrés. Et dans le bleu des cieux, Les alouettes encore lancent leur cri courageux Que plus personne n’entend sous le bruit des canons. Nous sommes morts : il y a à peine quelques jours, Nous connaissions les joies de la vie, de l’amour, La fraicheur de l’aurore, les lueurs du ponant. Maintenant nos corps sans vie reposent en sol flamand. Nos mains inanimées vous tendent le flambeau : C’est à vous, à présent, de le tenir bien haut, De contre l’ennemi reprendre la querelle. Si vous ne partagez des morts la foi rebelle, Nos corps ne pourront pas dormir paisiblement Sous les rouges coquelicots des cimetières flamands. Trad. J.P. Van Noppen |
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
On May 2, 1915, John McCrae’s close friend and former student Alexis Helmer was killed by a German shell. That evening, in the absence of a Chaplain, John McCrae recited from memory a few passages from the Church of England’s “Order of the Burial of the Dead”. For security reasons Helmer’s burial in Essex Farm Cemetery was performed in complete darkness.
The next day, May 3, 1915, Sergeant-Major Cyril Allinson was delivering mail. McCrae was sitting at the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the YserCanal, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, Belgium. |
As John McCrae was writing his In Flanders Fields poem, Allinson silently watched and later recalled, “His face was very tired but calm as he wrote. He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."
Within moments, John McCrae had completed the “In Flanders Fields” poem and when he was done, without a word, McCrae took his mail and handed the poem to Allinson. |
Allinson was deeply moved:
“The (Flanders Fields) poem was an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."
Source: http://www.flandersfieldsmusic.com/thepoem.html
“The (Flanders Fields) poem was an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."
Source: http://www.flandersfieldsmusic.com/thepoem.html
The Last Post |
The Rouse |
The Reveille |
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