Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Université


I have come to cherish my studies very much. I can't say I was really studious before. School just seemed an obligation with no meaning for me, until the one day I learned my first sentence in French.

My neighbor was a highschool french teacher. She taught me random words and phrases as I was growing up~but who would have known that it would have been in my destiny to come to France, and to also become a language teacher. Makes me smile that this is the path I have taken. I love it.

Sometimes I notice how things unwind, how each little detail seemed somehow connected to a greater plan, which led me to this moment. Down to the day that I fell and scarred my knee, to those little moments in shul that made me want to become more religious. To the many languages that held all the possibilities of a better life.

Also funny how I randomly fell into translation. I had come to France with the idea of doing a master in French Literature and when they heard my accent, gave me a schedule for translation. Now that I look back on how I almost changed in the middle of the first semester and was rather depressed by not spending my days reading Ronsard, it seems quite bashert that I stayed. Having english as a first language in France has it's benefits. People want to learn it. And for the course work I chose the text.

Coming here has given my life so much meaning. I feel so greatful that my daily existance seems to be that dream I had as a child. Being able to roam french streets in the old city. When I stop for a second and look around me I really am in disbelief that I am living in France, that I speak a language I only started learning at the age of 15 and just persued by pure curiosity to see how other people lived, it fascinates me.




Things are just so different here and I love chosing to be somewhere that I didn't know existed or could exist before I learned how to even say 'bonjour.'
Quand vous serez bien vieille, au soir, à la chandelle,
Assise auprès du feu, dévidant et filant,
Direz, chantant mes vers, en vous émerveillant :
« Ronsard me célébrait du temps que j’étais belle ! »
Lors, vous n’aurez servante oyant telle nouvelle,

Déjà sous le labeur à demi sommeillant,
Qui au bruit de Ronsard ne s’aille réveillant,
Bénissant votre nom de louange immortelle.
Je serais sous la terre, et, fantôme sans os,

Par les ombres myrteux je prendrai mon repos ;
Vous serez au foyer une vieille accroupie,
Regrettant mon amour et votre fier dédain.

Vivez, si m’en croyez, n’attendez à demain :
Cueillez dès aujourd’hui les roses de la vie.
Pierre de Ronsard, Sonnets pour Hélène, 1587

I am not sure what I am going to do when school is over. I would love to do my doctorate, but who knows how I could finance that one...taking a year off and working would be nice experience. Go back to Brooklyn and just get married? Wouldn't mind finding someone here, or someone who would like to live here.

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