You probably recognize this song from the movie, Ratatouille. “Le Festin” by Camille is a French song with lyrics that have a lot of meaning to me. It centers around a hungry thief who is starved of happiness. He views his few moments of happiness as false hope, since he is so used to being unhappy. In the middle of the song, his outlook begins to change and becomes more hopeful. He develops a new sense of determination and a new belief that there is happiness at the end of his newly begun journey.
I chose this song because it talks about life’s joys and sorrows. I have been taking French since I started high school, with almost the exact same group of people for three years. However, there’s no fourth year of French because of the budget cuts even though we have enough people. My years spent in French have given me a mix of both joy and sorrow, which I have shared with this same group of classmates. Since this is my last semester in French, I wanted to draw out a French Song, which is how I arrived at “Le Festin.”
I decided to draw a scale with food on one side and wine pouring out on the other side. A mouse stares longingly at the food. There’s a burning candle in the middle to symbolize the passage of time and the cat’s wait for the food to fall so she can eat. The stars hang over the side of the food, but are still out of reach, symbolizing a sense of false hope. I drew this without sketching in pencil first because I thought it would look better than if the lines were clean. I colored the food with markers and used it to color the wine.
I linked the song below and the translated lyrics underneath:
The dreams of lovers are like good wine
They give joy or even sorrow
Weakened by hunger, I am unhappy
Stealing on my way everything I can
Because nothing in life is free
Hope is a dish too soon finished
I am accustomed to skipping meals
A thief alone and hungry is sad enough to die
As for us, I am bitter, I want to succeed
Because nothing in life is free
Never will they tell me that I cannot shoot for the stars;
Let me fill you with wonder, let me take flight
We will finally fea . . . st
The party will finally start
And bring out the bottles, the troubles are over
I’m setting the table; tomorrow is a new life
I am happy at the idea of this new destiny
A life spent in hiding, and now I’m finally free
The feast is on my path
A life spent in hiding, and now I’m finally free
The feast is on my path. . .
