Yann Moix is a well-known French writer and regular guest on the talk show watched by millions, “On n’est pas couche” (which means: “We’re not ready for bed, we’ve still got lots to do”). The other day, in an emotional state, he read out part of a poem he had just written about Mireille Knoll, the 85-year-old Jewish woman who was stabbed to death, and then set alight in her apartment, by one Muslim attacker, while another Muslim apparently watched. The actual killer had been the neighbor of Mireille Knoll, whom he had known, and who had befriended him, for 20 years.
What made the story of Mireille Knoll particularly touching is that as a young girl she had just barely managed to avoid being one of the 13,000 Jews rounded up by the French police and taken to the Velodrome d’hiver (Vel d’Hiv), and from there sent on to Drancy, and then to their final destination in Auschwitz. Having been spared by fate as a nine-year-old, she did not manage to escape, as an 85-year-old, the same antisemitic hate, this time “with a different executioner.”
Yann Moix does not hold back on the subject of Islamic antisemitism. He writes of “Muslim Nazis.” He makes clear the link between the Nazi murders of Jews and those by Muslims today. It’s the first time on a national television program, in France, where such things have been spoken about in so outspoken a fashion.
Here is the poem, in English and then in the original French. Liberties have been taken with the literal translation only where necessary to better preserve the sense.
Dear Madame,
Spared by fate at the time of the velodromes,
Snatched away by chance from German crimes,
Death would be waiting for you beyond the pogroms,
Hidden in the madness of Muslim Nazis.
You had escaped from this disgraceful roundup,
Perpetrated by France against a few French citizens,
Whose main crime, and whose striking fault,
Was to have in their blood a God who was not there.
And your people who were hated, hated for their birth,
Know deep down that the blows of those knives, used to tear your flesh,
Were nothing starting up again,
But the same steady hate, and only the executioners had changed.
Your people who were punished, punished for their essence,
Know deep in the night that this auto-da-fé,
Where you were burned alive is the same flourish of evil,
Now endorsed by a different hand.
And your people who were despised,
Despised for their science,
Know deep in their lives that the cremation,
Of a lonely Jewish woman in her old age,
Will forever bear the name of desecration.
The French original follows:
Madame,
Epargnée par le sort au temps des vélodromes, Saved by fate at the time of the velodromes,
Arrachée par la chance aux crimes allemands,
La mort vous attendait au-delà des pogroms,
Cachée dans la folie de nazis musulmans.
Vous fûtes rescapée de cette rafle indigne
Pratiquée par la France envers quelques Français
Dont le crime premier, et dont la faute insigne
Fut d’avoir dans le sang ce Dieu qui s’absentait.
Et votre peuple haï, haï pour sa naissance
Sait tout au fond de lui que les coups de couteau
Dont on vous lacéra, n’est rien qui recommence,
Mais une haine fixe en un changeant bourreau.
Votre peuple puni, puni pour son essence
Sait du fond de sa nuit que cet autodafé
Où l’on vous immola est une efflorescence
Du toujours même mal, autrement parafé.
Et votre peuple honni, honni pour sa science
Sait du fond de sa vie que la crémation
D’une juive isolée en pleine sénescence,
Porte à jamais le nom de profanation.
gravenimage says
Hugh Fitzgerald: A French poet’s tribute to the Jewish woman murdered by a Muslim
……………………………
Bravo to Yann Moix for speaking out against this hideous crime–and alerting people to the ongoing threat of Islam. Grimly, I can think of few poets who would do the same.
Salah says
Ecoutez ma chanson bien douce
Que Verlaine n’aurait su mieux faire
Elle se veut discrète et légère
un frisson d’eau sur de la mousse
C’est la complainte de l’épouse,
de la femme derrière son grillage
Ils la font vivre au Moyen-âge
Que la honte les éclabousse.
Refrain
Quand la femme est grillagée
toutes les femmes sont outragées
les hommes les ont rejetées
Dans l’obscurité
Elle ne prend jamais la parole
En public ce n’est pas son rôle
Elle est craintive elle est soumise
Pas question de lui faire la bise
On lui a appris à se soumettre
A ne pas contrarier son maître
Elle n’a droit qu’à quelques murmures
Les yeux baissés sur sa couture
REFRAIN
Elle respecte la loi divine
Qui dit par la bouche de l’homme
Que sa place est à la cuisine
Et qu’elle est sa bête de somme
Pas question de faire la savante
Il vaut mieux qu’elle soit ignorante
Son époux dit que les études
Sont contraires à ses servitudes
REFRAIN
Jusqu’aux pieds sa burka austère
Est garante de sa décence
Elle prévient la concupiscence
Des hommes auxquels elle pourrait plaire
Un regard jugé impudique
Serait mortel pour la captive
Elle pourrait finir brûlée vive
Lapidée en place publique
REFRAIN
Jeunes femmes larguez les amarres
Refusez ces coutumes barbares
Dites non au manichéisme
Au retour à l’obscurantisme
Jetez ce moucharabieh triste
Né de coutumes esclavagistes
Et au lieu de porter ce voile
Allez vous-en mettez les voiles
English translation
Listen to my very sweet song
Verlaine wouldn’t have done better
It is discreet and lightweighted
A shudder of water on the foam
It is the lament of the spouse,
Of the woman behind her fence
They make her live in the Middle Ages
May they be covered with shame..
CHORUS
When the woman is fenced
All women are outraged
Men have rejected them
In the dark
She never speaks
In public, it is not her role
She is fearful she is subjugated
Not a chance for her to receive a kiss
They taught her to submit
Not to contradict her master
She is entitled to only a few whispers
With her eyes down on her sewing
CHORUS
She respects the divine law
That says by the man’s mouth
That her place is in the kitchen
And that she is his beast of burden
No way for her to get education
She’s better when she’s ignorant
Her husband says that education
Is contrary to her domestic tasks
CHORUS
Her head to toe austere burka
Is the guarantor of her decency
It prevents lust from the men
To whom she could appeal
One look deemed immodest
Would be fatal for the captive
She could end up burned alive
Stoned in the public place
CHORUS
Young women set sail
Reject these barbaric customs
Say no to Manichaeism
To the return to obscurantism
Get rid of this sad moucharabieh
Born of slavery customs
And instead of wearing this veil
Go away sail away.
Video here:
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.ca/2010/11/quand-la-femme-est-grillagee-pierre.html
gravenimage says
Fine poem from Pierre Perret–thank you, Salah. Good to see more French poets critical of Islam.
Thomas Hennigan says
The historical period called the Middle Ages was far from barbaric as Islam is. Of course, in the early period before the Germanic tribes, there was great barbarity, but little by little over the centuries called the Dark Ages (Vth to XIth centuries), the Catholic Church and especially Benedictine monks created Christia Europe and Western Civilization and women were never treated like Islam treats them.
gravenimage says
Here’s more good stuff from Yann Moix at Le Monde, defending Israel (Google Translate, so is is a bit clunky, but intelligible):
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=https://blog.mondediplo.net/2010-10-29-Yann-Moix-et-Le-Figaro-condamnes&prev=search
For daring to call the banning of Israeli films being shown in France antisemitic, he was the subject of criminal proceedings for “offense of public insult”. Kudos to him for refusing to back down.
mortimer says
And yet, many Jews are still not convinced that ISLAM is their enemy. Mireille Knoll thought one of her killers was a ‘friend’. She knew him for 20 years.
MUSLIMS HATE JEWS BECAUSE ALLAH HATES JEWS.
Muslims pray 17 times a day and 6,000 times a year that Allah’s WRATH is on the Jews.
Allah decrees that Muslims act as BOUNTY HUNTERS who collect the scalps of Allah’s enemies in exchange for eternal SEX SLAVES.
Many Jews do not realize that Mireille Knoll was a victim of JIHAD, a deadly form of FASCISM.
Rufolino says
Brilliantly clear post Mortimer. The death of this poor woman is heartbreaking.
Ezra says
Heartbreaking you say? That might be true if it were totally out of character or far from expected, but alas we all know better. This lovely lady subscribed to the Judeo-Christian notion that one may successfully befriend the accomplices of the Devil – that all men are redeemable by the simple extension of “brotherly love”. So many, sadly including Jews, choose to ignore history, to ignore the evidence and to ignore the signs and acts of those who are forever lost to the satanic doctrines of muhammedanism as set forth in qur’an and hadith. They willingly turn a blind eye to an evil they refuse to understand or that they fail to perceive. Perhaps even more grotesquely they run to pluck up the asp and hold it to their breast thinking the creature can be redeemed. From its inception islam was born to accomplish its sole purpose: the eradication of Jews and Christians. Tead it for yourselves. That goal is clearly articulated to any who but take the time to face the truth. The God of Jews and Christians is the target of the full panoply of the polytheistic system that emitted out of ancient Babylon and will not be be assuaged until defeated at the end-times. islam seeks to destroy young or old, man or woman, believer or atheist. It is a cancer upon mankind, but seemingly an affliction most in the West are willing to tolerate. Awaken sleepers, the time is fleeting.
Jack Dawkins says
allah = satan
muhammad = murderer
islam = death
Andy says
Condolence to the family on your loss.
RIP Dear lady Mireille Knoll
gravenimage says
Seconded, Andy.
Guy Jones says
Epic. As I often write, Islam represented the quintessence of German National Socialism — supremacism, totalitarianism, rabid anti-Semmitism, belligerence against all who reject Islamic orthodoxies — before National Socialism even existed.
It is not hyperbole to call Muslim jihadists and those who give them moral, financial, rhetorical and theological support — “Muslim Nazis.” It is, rather, a statement of truth.
Georg says
And thus “Mein Koran.”
Guy Jones says
Precisely. Two statements of hate, supremacism and bloodlust. Two books delineating the contours of an ideology of pure evil.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
It’s going to take a hell of a lot more than poetry to save France.
Guy Jones says
This is sadly true.
b.a. freeman says
yes, but in a time when it is a *crime* to speak against islam, speaking the truth is brave. one may not face death – yet – but one *will* face jail time, loss of job, loss of reputation, and no doubt more. the nazis are currently running eurabia, but only, of course, until their masters, the muslims, take over.
cornelius says
Great stuff Hugh. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
LR says
graven…”For daring to call the banning of Israeli films being shown in France antisemitic, he was the subject of criminal proceedings for “offense of public insult”. Kudos to him for refusing to back down.”…
Seems Yann Moix is one of those few people in France who has some courage…
Mike says
On n’est pas couché ( We are not sleeping yet ) is a title that plays on a double -meaning. It means we are not going to bed now ( because it is Saturday night and we want to use the evening for something else than sleeping ,tomorrow we don’t have to wake up for the job) and the other meaning is : we don’t crawl in front of the guests – artists , politicians etc… Here , we sayt the truth may it please or not .
When Zemmour was there , the double -meaning was true . After he left , it was not the case anymore .After a while , I got bored and what was my favorite tv show of the week , a real candy for the mind , became something I avoid at max. For me, the show was a red pill and now it is a blu pill for the masses.Host of the show , Ruquier , is a first class manipulator .While his guests are on the hot seat , he is always there with his finger on the upper lip as a moustache which is a traditional gesture of a manipulator .It means : ” How can I make this one falls ( since he doesn’t share my (political ) views).
At the beginning of the show , as much as I am told , there is a Trump -bashing moment every week .Trump but also America -bashing : How can Americans be so idiots to have elected such a man ? They realy are not as wise as us , French .
Don’t put Yann MOIX on a pedestal either . He has the real leftard typical sick mind . He had been beaten in his childhood , now he see victims everywhere and most of the time, he is on the wrong side .Poor judgment , very biased. Need a psycho-analysis .
Manny says
This stirs my heart. I need to post this myself.
Linnte says
Europe is so fearful of becoming Nazi again, they’re letting in millions of “little Hitlers” hoping to prevent Nazism. It’s mind boggling.