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Letter From Paris
Song of Roland Garros
The French enjoyed it, as they must, without any of their hopes getting anywhere (they never do).
(Page 2 of 2)
French tennis never has been the same, but they do have a nice museum here, closed during tournaments. They give names to their stadiums, as to their streets, to keep the past alive.
Roland Garros, born 1888, was one of the first fighting aviators. A friend of his named Saulnier designed a machine gun that fired through the propeller. At the command of his plane, Garros could fight out-numbered. He was shot down in the summer of 1916, escaped, returned to his squadron, wreaked havoc among German airmen. He went down a second time, for good, a few weeks before the armistice.
I hoped they would be playing here again next year and for many years, but on the way back I stopped in the poets’ park and found the lines of another soldier of the Great War, who fell, too, in its last days.
Nous ne nous verrons plus sur terre
Odeur du temps brin de bruyère
Et souviens toi que je t’attends!
I cannot do justice to Guillaume Apollinaire’s lyricism, but he means, more or less:
We won’t meet again on earth
Smell of time sprig of heather
And remember I am waiting!
About the Author
Roger Kaplan, a Washington-based writer, covers the Middle East and Africa (and tennis) for The American Spectator.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (23) | Leave a comment
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JmsA| 6.11.10 @ 9:14AM
Next to an American winning the French Open, there's nothing more galling to the French than a Spaniard winning it.
Alan Brooks| 6.11.10 @ 9:11PM
The French excel as running and ducking-- as they proved in 1940.
pipe fittings | 6.13.10 @ 1:11AM
Arab fascist slave traders and dictators, etc., you still should not mix things up and since there is a reference in here to French war-time, keep in mind that during the disaster of 1940, it wasn't the French army that ran, they were losing proportionately the same as during the worst of WW I and it was the politicians who ran -- as they do in most countries when the going get tough.
Alan Brooks| 6.11.10 @ 11:21PM
The French can run as well as anyone:
at least to the West.
ange | 6.12.10 @ 10:14AM
With all due respect to American exasperation with French diplomacy , its appeasement of Arab fascist slave traders and dictators, etc., you still should not mix things up and since there is a reference in here to French war-time, keep in mind that during the disaster of 1940, it wasn't the French army that ran, they were losing proportionately the same as during the worst of WW I and it was the politicians who ran -- as they do in most countries when the going get tough.
Ange (from Abidjan)
Alan Brooks| 6.12.10 @ 5:43PM
Duly noted. Unlike zee French vee here in zee bad US are too cynical, you see, mon amour.
But ve like to joke here, sometimes even racy jokes;
you know... zee French sor-te.
Alan Brooks| 6.12.10 @ 5:46PM
But you are technically correct, ange:
zee French did NOT run,
they surrendered. And who can blame them? better for them to let the Russians, British, and Americans do most of the dying in 1944.
dk| 7.1.10 @ 4:53AM
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chicago web design | 7.5.11 @ 6:16AM
exactly!!!