In this cold night of october, we want to sing something hot. Something we in the band love a lot, something that makes the wine flow and the throat tense. This is an occitan song that celebrates freedom like not many others.
1805, we’re in Tolon: a place nowadays desolatingly in the hand of the french right-wing. But other battles were fought there in that time. The english are blockading against Napoleon by sea. Casually around that place, a man named Joan Peirol had retired, back in his homeland after a honest life spent as a pirate in the south seas. After some time playing Petanque and doing other retirement stuff, he decides that a pirate has to die like he lived, on deck, and so he dies in an act of war. He cares not for napoleon or the english, but he dies for his love of freedom. The lights of Tolon can still be seen, the horizon is crushed by the sky. I die to be what i was. Freedom is the wind in your face, freedom is the wave and the sail… thus sings Joan Peirol.
Ara s’envisquen li lumieras,
scrasàas dal cèl, aval a l’orizont!
pian pian veu despareiser Iera,
devino encar lo pòrt de Tolon!
La libertat es l’aire sul morre,
aquesta mar es tot çò que ai!
l’aire e la tela, vòli dire,
sies estat abituda, vida e pantalh!
Mòri per estre çò que eri,
ma vida val la mia finicion,
e dins lo cul aquel Emperi,
tuchi i Engles e Napoleon!
Fraire de la mar, fraire de la còsta,
l’aiga nos pòrta al nòste destin,
la libertat es l’aire e la vela,
la libertat, l’onda e lo dalfin!
Dedicated to all souls who are free.