For €28, Guy Marcon in collaboration with Jean-Philippe Mestre and Fabrice Granouillet, the publisher Height of a Man, offer you the opportunity for an exceptional return to the past with “So we lived in La Haute-Loire yesterday, Occitan, culture and good manners”.
This is an ethnological mine. Transcriptions of interviews conducted in patois, valuable testimonies of the daily life of a 20th century peasant couple, are richly illustrated with photos. “This work is a tribute to the ancient society of springs and forests, to this old peasant people little by little erased,” we read on the back cover.
A hard-working world
The chapters are divided by theme. We learn a thousand things there, some happy and some sad, some mundane and some extraordinary. Conviviality, childish games, festivals, but also a whole hard-working world where we meet shepherds, cowherds, seasonal workers, invite themselves throughout the pages. Illness, poverty, the death of men and the sacrifice of animals, wild or domestic, are also very present.
On the borders of Velay, Vivarais and Gévaudan
The setting is that of the south of Haute-Loire, between Loire and nascent Allier, on the borders of Velay, Vivarais and Gévaudan. The time is when pagan or Christian festivals intermingled, punctuating the year, work in the fields and with the animals.
A faithful translation
Guy Marcon accompanied a peasant couple, Marie and Ludovic, for years, recording them in their Occitan speaking. Then, he carried out a faithful translation which reveals the poetry of this local Occitan, the richness of his grammar and his syntax. He restores here this testimony of a life which is no more and which, however, will still seem very close to some.
Prix : 28 €
