Saturday, July 06, 2019
The Most Beautiful Language in the World
Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897), "The Last Class: The Story of a Little Alsatian," Short Stories, tr. George Burnham Ives (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1909), pp. 187-197 (at 193):
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Then, passing from one thing to another, Monsieur Hamel began to talk to us about the French language, saying that it was the most beautiful language in the world, the most clear, the most substantial; that we must always retain it among ourselves, and never forget it, because when a people falls into servitude, "so long as it clings to its language, it is as if it held the key to its prison."1
1 "S'il tient sa langue, il tient la clé qui de ses chaines le delivre."—Mistral.
Alors d'une chose à l'autre, M. Hamel se mit à nous parler de la langue française, disant que c'était la plus belle langue du monde, la plus claire, la plus solide: qu'il fallait la garder entre nous et ne jamais l'oublier, parce que, quand un peuple tombe esclave, tant qu'il tient bien sa langue, c'est comme s'il tenait la clef de sa prison.
