Bouchavesnes

Toi l’oncle que mon père

N’a pas connu

De la grande guerre

Tu n’es pas revenu

Ton nom vit encore

sur une plaque

du monument aux morts

à Nivillac

Là où l’hécatombe

A fauché tant d’hommes

Se trouve ta tombe

dans la Somme

C’est à Bouchavesnes

Au lieudit Bois Labbé

Qu’à vingt ans à peine

Tu es tombé

Quelle encre, quelle couleur

Faudrait-il pour décrire

Le cauchemar, l’horreur

Des obus et des tirs ?

Quelques mètres gagnés

Le bataillon progresse

Quelques mètres gagnés

Au prix de ta jeunesse

Quand on parlait de toi

Au bord de la Vilaine

On ne connaissait pas

Bouchavesnes-Bergen

On savait que les combats,

Le feu et les tranchées

t’avaient loin de chez toi

Emporté.

On pleurait ta jeunesse

Abattue

Comme une promesse

Non tenue

Appelé à la guerre,

Toi le Poilu,

De ce train vers l’enfer

Tu n’es pas revenu

C’était la Der des Der,

Puis ce serait la paix

Quand elle parle de guerre

L’humanité bégaie.

Pour que les canons

Un jour enfin se taisent

Tu es mort au front

En 1916.

The war was often evoked in my family, the first and second world war, but the struggles lived by our parents were not much evoked. An uncle of my father was sometimes talked about, particularly when we were looking at the war memorial in Nivillac. His youth killed in the war, in the Somme, was reminded with regret.

This great-uncle died during the battle of the Somme in Bouchavesnes, on septembre the 18th, 1916, in a place called Bois-l'Abbé (the "priest wood"), at the age of 20. He is burried in the national military cemetery in Rancourt, near Péronne (Somme).

After the first world war, a rich norvegian shipbuilder, Haakon Wallem (1870-1951), asked marshal Foch what was the place most destroyed by the fights.Without hesitation, Foch pointed out Bouchavesnes. The shipbuilder, for the sake of France and wanting to help this devastated small town, contributed financially to the reconstruction of Bouchavesnes, raising money in Bergen (Norway).

Grateful for this help, in 1920, the town of Bouchavesnes has taken the name of Bouchavesnes-Bergen.


War memorial, Nivillac

Bouchavesnes-Bergen Town Hall Bergen Town Hall

(France) (Norway)

Translation of the song words

You, the uncle my father has never known,

from the great war you did not come back.

Yout name is still living on a slab

of the war memorial in Nivillac.

Where the slaughter has killed so many people

is your grave, in the Somme. It is in Bouchavenes, at the place called Bois l'Abbé,

that, at the age of twenty, you falled down.

What ink, what colour might be used to describe the nightmare, the horror of shells and fire ?

Some meters gained, the battalion progresses. Some meters gained at the cost of your youth.

When you were reminded, near the Vilaine banks, no one knew Bouchavesnes-Bergen.

We knew that struggles, fire and trenches had carried you away far from your home.

Tears were shared about your youth knocked down like an unfulfilled promise.

Marked out for the war, you, the Poilu*, from this train towards hell, you did not come back.

Il was the Der des Der**, then it would be peace.

When they speack about war, human people stammer.

So that the guns, one day at last, shut up,

you died on the front, in 1916.

*Poilu : name given to french soldiers during the first world war

** Der des Der : for "Dernière des Dernières", the war to end all wars, kind of stammering expression used for saying that the war engaged in 1914 would be the last one.