JE TOMBE EN morceaux.. goes the first line of that song; and I was thinking.. but no, it was not the ABBA; another group – or individual, maybe. Though I remember listening to them sing the chiquitita beautifully, countless times – in French.
YES, IN NEAR recent times, my vividness for the song starts with humming – usually in the bathroom. Then my queue line: Je tombe en morcceaux.. shifting to English (same line):
‘I FALL TO pieces.. Each time I see you again; I fall to pieces, how can I be just your friend? You told me to act like we’ve never met..
‘BUT EACH TIME you go out with somebody else, you walk by and I fall to pieces! [Then, again: hum, and re-start: Je tome en morceaux.. Each time I see you again, et cetera’.
EACH LINE OF this song touches somewhat the fringes of our present, contemporary situation: the global unrest, crises affronting and repulsions eventual, wars and takeovers, and the Pandemic threat, etc.; ‘oppressors’ all – that the “I” or “Ego” in each one of us is: witnessing, praying against, wishing (them) gone.. to atrophy, sana, koma.
YES! OUI!, JE tombe en morceaux – not in the original, deep and heart-warming way, as when you (finally!) first meet your Soc Media ‘crush’; or when you chance-see your former High School copaine; or ex-girlfriend (or boyfriend, apologias); but rather
A DEEP (TOO), nerve-wracking – or devastating, feeling; or fear, worry, anxiety – even trembling..
YOU WATCH THE téléviseur or the You-tube; or just listen to our local radio/stations – ah,
IF YOU WON’T be alarmed by those ‘rising’ and/but ‘falling’ [a bit] virus cases, plus the other threats of: dengue, ‘Leptospirosis’, and the like; plus further the ‘take over’ wars near where we are, and heightened by the breaking news of hate violence and terrorism in some areas of the world, don’t some, or any, or all of these make you:
SIGH, EXCLAIM, OR wail(!): ah, I can’t but ‘fall to pieces’ (=new meaning) to desperation, despair, and surrender almost; sadly and unfortunately
WE HEAR ON radio or TV those terrible instances of suicide or self-termination. We sincerely condole with their surviving families and friends.
THE EXPR Je tombe en morceaux has a parallel – no, not an ‘equivalent’, in Nabaloi: naxa amay pokhai; but first un-equivalence is they precede the EXPR with a Singa~ (“as if~”) thus: Singa naxa mai pokhai! [Let’s continue in English] hearing those devastating news of ‘new and rising’ cases and statistics! Mananahot, mananahot! (“how really fearful!”).
BUT AGAIN, WE go back to ourselves and remind and assure each other: God is not asleep; He is always there, and will all get us through these – palubos ti Apo, we say; God-willing. Our government says: ‘we heal as one’; and our volunteers and frontliners all are always on-heels. Let’s not fall to pieces and to naught on nothingness. Let’s hope and pray, and heal-today, the next, or the next, next day.
AND THE OTHER-END axis application of Je tombe.., do we have a sample? Answer is: yes, we do have, and that is:
NONE OTHER THAN THE present Election ‘Fever’: Ah-ha, don’t you not ‘fall to pieces’ coming to sight – or hearing on broadcast the ‘newly-energized’ bunch of candidates and aspirants for this – or that, position?
WE SAY IN Cordi Iluko: adda da manen! (Transl: “There they come again!”). Listen, Look – they’re all over: Some
WITH THE OLD, handshaking (or waving), gesturing styles; some with new ‘gimmicks’ of being ‘sponsors’ to this or that programme, product, or tune/song(!) – don’t you feel tickled or ‘touched’, metikshon, to say: Je tombe.. I really ‘fall to pieces’? But candidly now:
THERE ARE NOT ‘just-a-few’ no-nonsense, meaning-purposed ones we can really fall in favour for – and cast-vote to: come Election Day. Do you see them too? For them, let’s sing or think in unison: “may you really make it and win – to serve your people and your constituency!
“FOR YOUR VISIONS and advocacies, we sincerely and clandestinely ‘fall to pieces!’ Listen to each one of us sing: Je Tombe en morceaux..” Ayo, ayo, ino!
