Alger Pleure [English translation]

I'm mixed-blood: a little colonist, a little colonized

A little darkened dove, a little discoloured raven

Médine is a metis: Franco-Algerian

Double identity: I am a schizophrenic of mankind

Old enemies coexist in my genetic code

Single-handedly, I embody a credits-less history

Unfortunately, sorrows are retroactive

When the French part of me speaks up in the mike of life

Did you think that our ears were behind the bars?

And that our eyes saw history through Aussaresses'1?

Did you think war was merely Moorish?

That only the Arabs' fate would be memorialised?

We never wanted any separation, any crisis,

For our only choice to be between our grave or our bags

Neither did we want a French Algeria,

Nor a France drowning its indigenous in the Seine

And yet I remember! The NLF2 who with panic and hatred,

Responsible for a rightful cause using Manichaean means,

Cut off the nose of those who said no to the cuttings3

Stared at, 'cause neutrality turns you into a stranger

Not all Frenchmen were part of the machine,

Practitioners of death, avengers of Indochina

We wish the Algerians what we wanted ten years ago

For ourselves, the liberation of some human dignity

We weren't all Jean Moulins4, but still far from not giving a damn

Close to Jean-Paul Sartre and people who were ready to go 'till the end

At times communist, traitor 'cause I carried a suitcase

At times mere sympathiser of the independence movement

I refuse to be associated with the degenerated generals

My grandparents will never be responsible for the evil done

It's hard to accept that History makes me want to throw up

That on both sides of the Mediterranean, everything has worsened

[Chorus]

Algiers dies, Algiers lives

Algiers sleeps, Algiers screams

Algiers fears, Algiers prays

Algiers cries, Algeria

[Verse 2]

I'm mixed-blood: a little colonist, a little colonized

A little darkened dove, a little discoloured raven

Médine is a metis: Franco-Algerian

Double identity: I am a schizophrenic of mankind

Old enemies coexist in my genetic code

Single-handedly, I embody a credits-less history

Unfortunately, sorrows are retroactive

When the Algerian part of me speaks up in the mike of life

Did you think we'd forget all about the torture?

That the real reason behind the invasion was fuel?

Did they really think that petroleum hid in our guts,

To plough through our bodies like you plough through a vast domain?

We can't forget the code for 'indigenous'

We can't hide our shame from the shock of torture5

To electrocute men for six or seven hours in a row

Naked bodies on an iron mattress connected to the mains

We can't forget the blood-immaculated djellabas

The removed masculine dignity of a castrated man

Wood-picking up chores, to dig one's grave before putting it to use

We can't forget those who were mutilated in more than thirty spots of their body

The hails of kicks, the Chinese water torture

The boot prints on the Djounouds' honour

We can't forget the bites of the dog-squad

And the uncircumcised genitals in our daughters' bellies

You can't silence the laws with the law of silence

The steely national hand crushes the Mohammedan laws

And the gathering centres for muslim people

The concentration camps by the end of the Second Wolrd War

We can't forget our enemies,

The factories of death, the Sésini Villa6

My shoulder is draped by my mostly green banner

My word, from human memory: executioners will never have the nice role

[Chorus]

[Verse 3]

My blood is honey-dewed, three quarters caramelised

Naturalised, carbonised identities

Médine, but who's that guy?

Mediterranean?

Or salty Northern Sea?

Labelled "Made in a damned land"

The hardest part of war is putting an end to it,

For peace to be a ratified worth

The old enemies are feeding an everlasting rancour

If Algeria catches a cold, it means that France sneezed

And so we discuss, clearing our throats

And remembering the dead with the cutting edge

We write down the score after each new scratch,

Recount the bodies after each new try

From the martyr to the Harki7, from the colonist all the way to the native

Who fought for their homeland? And who for their assets?

From the Pied-Noir8 to the Resistance member, we're all longing for history

Algiers the White, Algiers the Black

[Chorus]

1. French Army general, who fought during the Algerian War.2. National Liberation Front, a political party in Algeria.3. More like 'trenches', but for the sake of the pun...4. Member of the French Resistance during WWII.5. 'Gégène' is military slang for torture via electroshock.6. Place where NLF members were held captive and tortured.7. Algerian soldier loyal to France.8. Frenchman born in Algeria (when it was still colonised).

• Artist:Médine