Louis Riel and poetry

The one person that almost everyone remembers from Western Canadian or Métis history - if they remember anyone at all - is Louis Riel. For more information about him, see this awesome Canadian Encyclopedia Online article. For the purposes of this post, all you have to know is that he was a francophone Métis political and religious leader involved in two rebellions in 1869 and 1885. He spent a lot of the time in between those rebellions in exile in the United States.

He also wrote a lot of letters... and a lot of poetry. 

Today, while finishing up a few papers, one of which is on the Métis interpreters and the Numbered Treaties of the 1870s, I ran across a few of his French-language poems in the appendices of a book called The Free People - Li Gens Libres: A History of the Métis Community of Batoche, Saskatchewan by Diane P. Payment. And this poetry is INTENSE. 

 

Caveat: the author stated that this poem is attributed to Riel, but not for sure. Either way, it's intense.

 

Scroll down for a rough English translation by me, without any effort at making it rhyme. It has more rhythm in French.

 

C'est au champ de bataille, 

J'ai fait crier mes douleurs,

Où tant qu'un doute se passe, 
Ça fait frémir les coeurs.
 

Or je r'çois-t-une lettre
De ma chère maman
J'avais ni plum' ni encre
Pour pouvoir lui écrire.

Or je pris mon canif,
Je le trempai dans mon sang
Pour écrir' une lettre
À ma chère maman.
Quand ell' r'creva cett' lettre
Tout écrit' de sang
Ses yeux baignant de larmes,
Son coeur s'allant mourant.

S'y jette à genoux par terre,

En appelant ses enfants:

Priez pour votr' p'tit frère

Qui est au régiment

Mourir, c'est pour mourir,

Chacun meurt à son tour;

J'aim' mieux mourir en brave,

Faut tous mourir un jour.

 

 

( Really, REALLY rough English translation. It's kind of dramatically gory. )