Antanas Sabaniauskas "Toujours L'Amour" 1933

"Toujours L'Amour"
Toujours l'amour, living is fun,
While the game of love is hot.
Toujours l'amour, you be happy too.
Love while you are still young.
Because love, like a dream, fades,
Like flowers wilt in the autumn,
Pretty, charming, always loving,
Happy like a butterfly in the sun.

Antanas Sabaniauskas Lithuania's leading pop tenor, whose music was played throughout Europe, a wonderful and big-hearted man who died in obscurity, reviled by his government. The tragedy of Sabaniauskas life, parallels the tragedy of Lithuania. Occupied by the Russians with the collaborator Lithuanian government, Lithuania's greatest talents were judged by their love of freedom, rather than talent. When the war ended, Sabaniauskas was able to work as a singer in the Lithuanian National Opera chorus. In 1947, when the Communists found out who he was, he was fired. For the rest of his days he eked out a living doing menial jobs barely able to support himself and his family. In the 70s he was finally allowed to sing in clubs. Like so many things in our lovely little country, who knows how his life would have turned out, and how many people in the world might have enjoyed the singing of this amazing vocalist, had Lithuania remained free.

The last occupants of this riverside home perished deported to Siberia. The father died from eating boiled tree bark as a slave laborer in the Gulag, his wife perished soon after, and only his daughter survived to return to a newly-independent Lithuania.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Antanas
• Sabaniauskas
• Lithuanian
• music
• pre-WWII
• 1930's

[genia106]

Hi, I followed Jurek's recommendation to this song. I love it. Thank you for the translation. I have copied the lyrics for future inspiration. Is your Vilinus the same as Vilno? I ask because my father was from Vilno in Poland and hear it is a beautiful city. In any case, I love your music. Dziekuje!

[DamnKimPhilby]

Your father, bless his memory, firmly believed, that the capitol of Lithuania somehow belonged to Poland. What he called Vilno, was, for eons before anyone thought of cities as belonging to one ethnic group, the capital of the Lithuanian nation. Adomas Mickevicius, in his beautiful epic poem, Pan Tadeus--The Last Foray into Lithuania, wrote about his love for Vilnius and Lithuania.

[DamnKimPhilby]

Vilnius or Vilno, it's just a question of weather you're Baltic or Slavic- it is the same city loved by both Poles and Lithuanians, who today live here peacefully side-by-side. If you, as you seem to be, are sensitive to how difficult it is for small countries to maintain their integrity, please honour our cause and centuries of national striving, and call it Vilnius.

[genia106]

Thank you for your explanation, of course I shall call it "Vilnius" :) and someday shall visit for I understand it is a very beautiful city from stories my father told me and I may add that now I have discovered how charming and thoughtful the inhabitants are from your response. Dziekuje.

[AnaJilK]

Voice penetrating into the bottom of the soul... I am so glad you like it...

[kostgian]

see well the lyrics....''love while you are still young..because later like a dream fade...''

[kostgian]

ANTANAS SAB is great......his voice is coming from a sad , a tortured,a sorrow -soul............

[DamnKimPhilby]

I am most grateful for your kind words.

[jurek46pink]

Thank you.

No, not yet.