Ode - The Métis - Canadian – French People
*Translation
I love without measure and I admire
The Metis - Canadian - French :
This new people
Already in brilliant successes.
He's made his fame known
To the Minnesota Indians.
He's always had victory
Against the Dakota clans.
The mountains and prairies
Of the North West have a thousand times
Tilted their flowering herbs
To the memory of his exploits.
The pretty cart paths,
Numerous around Regina,
Show the roads he has made.
All the way to Montana.
His humble, hospitable home
Saved a lot of strangers.
Their valor and warrior courage
Has averted many dangers.
These people are nevertheless peaceful.
But in their blood are warriors.
Well led, they become terrible.
Then he needs laurels.
Manitoba so precocious
Is great, because he founded it.
Under the control of the Priesthood
Who always guided him so well,
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The Métis understand that the church
Is Queen above all;
Heavenly being the committer
His works alone remain standing.
The Metis is the sign bearer
Of a right we've deserted;
A natural right that we disdain
And put everywhere in oblivion.
Natural law is the essence
Of good transactional sense.
Principle of any alliance
Must be the foundation.
Métis! Let us love righteousness.
Let us adhere to it resolutely.
Showing our right for what it is,
Artless, straightforward, true.
And we will do much good
To the entire society
Who falls into madness.
The law alone offers freedom.
Let us live the normal way
Of man in his primitive state.
More than one social virtue
Reign in us to the superlative
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Let us be the people who
Distance ourselves from arrogant ideas.
Let us show that we belong here,
Distance ourselves from extravagant morals.
We are selling, it's true, our land.
Surely that hurts us.
But the salutary principles
That we have, will bear fruit
Our good principles keep us alive
In spite of our doubters.
The righteous laws we follow
Will defeat all evil designs
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If the bridge is created
Between Métis and Canadian;
It’s assured, both races
Will be all the better.
For I find that one excels
In virtues the other lacks.
While all the while the second
Has what the first can not.
The French Canadian has
The knowledge of power.
It is for the good that he advocates.
He aims for what he can get.
In his long experience
Under the Anglo-Saxon rule.
He studies in consciousness
More than one learned lesson.
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He knows full well the Power
Wish only for destruction.
He fights reluctantly
To cling on to his place.
The French Canadians are firm.
They must be in high spirits...
In order to fight on good terms
With the English in general.
They must be good diplomats
These Albion tamers
Who often chain the paws
Of the Unicorn and the Lion
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Métis, the great indifference
That we have Indian blood
Going to extremes;
And still, Canadian
By stroke of finesse
Face-to-face with our enemies,
We're caught in a weakness.
We compromise too much.
To make us more energetic
God brings us from overseas
The best of all tonics.
Cordial, but not bitter,
The French Spirit that stimulates us
Is our great fortification.
Let us listen to him when he says
Our rights in confidence.
Let us be proud when he proclaims them,
In stable, fearless voice;
And discuss them with soul
In terms that we accept.
The French of ancient France
Declares law without exception.
His lucid and Christian language
Talk only to the imperative.
The French are full of zeal.
A generous and valiant guardian
Of laws in the Eternal City,
With a fiery hot front.
God allows him more boldness
Than perhaps most other mortals.
He works nonstop to recreate,
And restore the precious altars.
The French has empire
Right down to his every word.
He works nonstop to rebuild
His honesty is a great help.
The enchanting politeness
Encourages boo’s verywhere.
It helps to calm and straighten
Even the most angry.
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Let's have in our French language
Beautiful foreign words;
More than wealth she requires
More of these new mixes.
Let us borrow from the wild tongues
A certain choice of expressions;
Some of their images
Some of their nice phrases.
These novelties will make stronger
The language of our ancestors.
Let us embellish it like this
To the best of our taste.
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Métis alongside Canadians
French, if our three elements
Blend well, it seems to me
That we'll be greater one day.
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The three leaves of the clover can
Exist on the same footing.
All three, pretty, move around
In unison, as befits them.
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The clergy that edifies us
Will surely unite us,
As the clover shows
Her three beautiful petals.
Her big heart takes a lot of pain
To consolidate, I know,
The Manitoba Nation
Of the Metis-Canadians-French.
Louis Riel.
Cite Article : www.canadahistory.com/sections/documents