Denez Prigent - Gortoz a Ran (I'm Wating)
Song is sung in Breton. A Celtic Language spoken in Brittany, Modern-Day France, Europe. Includes clips of Brittany's Landscape.
“Gortoz a Ran” (I'm Waiting), and the recording is by Denez Prigent and Lisa Gerrard.
It is truly a Haunting Song!
Denez Prigent is one of the best-known Bards of Traditional Breton Music, and this song is on his 2000 album "Irvi". (Available in all the usual places).
It's actually not the first time Americans have been exposed to this Song - it was featured in the movie Black Hawk Down. I haven’t seen the film, but I had read about such at some point.
I'M WAITING
~Lyrics in English
I was waiting, waiting for a long time
In the dark shadow of grey towers
In the dark shadow of rain towers
You will see me waiting forever
One day it will come back
Over the seas, over the lands
Over the lands, over the seas
To steal me on the trunks
It will come back full of spray
In the dark shadow of the black towers
Will come back the blue wind
To breathe my wounded heart
I will be pulled away by its blow
Far away by its stream to another land
I will be pulled away by its breath
Far away by its stream, wherever it wants
Wherever it wants, far away from this world
Between the sea and the stars
GORTOZ A RAN
~Lyrics in Breton
Gortozet ‘m eus, gortozet pell
E skeud teñval an tourioù gell
E skeud teñval an tourioù gell
E skeud teñval an tourioù glav
C’hwi am gwelo ‘c’hortoz atav
C’hwi am gwelo ‘c’hortoz atav
Un deiz a vo ‘teuio en-dro
Dreist ar morioù, dreist ar maezioù
Dreist ar maezioù, dreist ar morioù
‘teuio en-dro an avel c’hlas
Da analañ va c’halon c’hloaz
Kaset e vin diouzh e alan
Pell gant ar red, hervez ‘deus c’hoant
Hervez ‘deus c’hoant pell eus ar bed
Etre ar mor hag ar stered
END
During what are known as The Dark Ages (truly the Golden Ages), after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Angles and Saxons invaded Britain, forcing the British who previously inhabited the whole Island, to retreat again to their Western strongholds; a considerable number of them decided to do so by emigrating South across the Sea, to join their Cousins in the Northwest part of Gaul; and so it was that Armorica, as the area had been know until then, became the Land of The Britons, or as we now know it, Brittany.
The Bretons are thus the Cousins of The Britons, and to this day Brittany and The Celtic parts of the UK share much in common, including a common Folklore - involving among others The Legends of King Arthur - and similar Languages.
If you happen to speak Welsh, you may get on well with Britanny's Breton speakers. Indeed, about 250,000 people in Brittany speak or understand Breton - generally as a second Language, and Breton Culture and Language have undergone a massive revival in the last thirty years, even if they have not acquired the force and status that The Welsh language has regained in Wales (Cymru).
Bretons are proud of their Identity, and many think of themselves as Bretons before calling themselves French. However, in centralised France, devolution has not occurred to the same extent as in Britain, and while the Breton Language is taught in many schools, there is no official Breton Parliament, just a Regional Council that meets in Rennes.
Like their Cousins in the Islands to the North, the Ancient Bretons left to posterity an impressive number of pre-historic sites, most famous of which are the Megaliths of Carnac (photos @ end of video) in Southern Brittany, France's equivalent of Stonehenge, with its 3000 blocks of Granite.
Throughout the region, there are Dolmens and Standing Stones whose origins are lost in the mists (midsts) of time.
As in Britain, where the Ancient Celtic Tribes were progressively forced back into the Western parts of The Isles, The Celts of France were also pushed towards the Atlantic by the westward thrust of Romans and Tribes such as the Franks, who eventually gave their Name to the Land that the Romans had called Gallia - or Gaul - and which we know today as France.
It was only in the furthest Northwestern extremity of France that the Ancient Gauls, with their Celtic Language and Culture, managed to survive; and they have done so to this day, leaving Brittany - The Land of The Bretons - as the Largest Outstanding Stronghold of Celtic Heritage on The Continent of Europe.
Throughout Brittany, small Festivals and other events strongly stress the Region's distinct Celtic Heritage and Cultural Identity. The most important event in the Annual Calendar is however the Annual Inter-Celtique Festival, which takes place each year in the first half of August, in the Port of Lorient.
Started in 1971, The Lorient Festival is now one of France's great summer Music Festivals, and attracts performers from all over The Celtic Regions of Europe, as well as over 600,000 visitors. It includes a Grand Parade, with marching bands and musicians from Brittany and other Celtic Regions too.
6:29
