Tu Verras - Tu te Reconnaitras

QIn the springtime of my 21st year, I had just landed in Luxembourg for the very first time, arriving on a Loftleiðir flight from Reykjavik. This was where my feet first touched European soil! Having gotten a small room at a pension in the shadow of a Roman aqueduct, I had a bite to eat in a little café, and then I walked about the city to have a look at the place.

Though it was beautiful, I eventually tired from the day's travel, and sat down on a park bench to rest for a minute. The air was filled with the shouting and laughter of children playing. As my ears became accustomed to the voices, I began to discern not one, but several languages at once. I picked out Italian, French, Spanish, and German! Curiosity got the better of me, and I shouted to the children that I wanted to speak to them. I did this in all four languages that I heard, so as not to offend anyone. They immediately stopped their play and gathered around me.

My curiosity was satisfied when they explained to me that they were mostly children of diplomats here in Luxembourg - and for having so long played with each other in this park, they learned a bit of each other's languages and became friends. One boy was actually a local. He asked me what I was doing there. I replied that I was on a long journey - a sort of quest - to see the world, to learn its languages, and to get to know myself in the process.

The boy, possibly a lad of 10 or 11 years, smiled a knowing, understanding smile I was unaccustomed to seeing among my countrymen. He went to his schoolbag, pulled out his notebook, and began writing a poem in French. Having completed it, he tore it out and handed it to me. I looked at him in a questioning way. "It's your song," he said, in beautiful English. "A lady from my country has sung your song." I thanked him, folded it up, and put it in my journal - my Carnet de Passage, Europa '73-'74.

I later read the poem, which actually turned out to be  the words of a hit song. It was about someone who was just beginning a great adventure of life - and who will get to know themselves in the process. As I started my long Grand Tour d'Europe, one that was to last nearly a year, this was indeed MY song:

Dans les rêves de l’enfance
Dans l’élève que le maître a puni.
Dans la gare où commence
La première aventure de la vie
Dans celui qui doute
Dans celui qui croit

 Tu verras, tu te reconnaîtras
À chaque instant dans chaque joie,
dans chaque larme

Tu verras, tu te reconnaîtras
Dans cet enfant, parmi ces gens,
tous comme toi

 Dans les rêves de l’artiste
Que la gloire n’a jamais couronné
Dans ce monde égoïste
Qui renie ce qu’il a adoré

 Dans ceux qui ont peur
Dans ceux qui ont froid
 Tu verras, tu te reconnaîtras
À chaque instant dans chaque joie,
dans chaque larme

Tu verras, tu te reconnaîtras
Dans cet enfant, parmi ces gens, tous comme

toi Tu verras, tu te reconnaîtras
Dans cet amour que j’ai pour toi
Oui, tu verras, tu te reconnaîtras.

 
Anne-Marie David, Luxembourg 1973

MERCI MILLE FOIS Anne-Marie! Merci aussi au petit jeunhomme Luxembourgois qui m'a fait connaître un peut de moi- même!