The Partisan

"**The Partisan**" is a song that AURORA covered, originally written by Anna Marly and Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie under the title "La Complainte Du Partisan" and later adapted by Hy Zarat and arranged and recorded by Leonard Cohen. AURORA's cover was used exclusively in the exhibition *Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything* at the MAC museum in Montréal, Canada. Eighteen artists contributed songs to the *Listening to Leonard* installation.

Apart from the exhibition the song has not been officially released. A recording made at the museum by a fan leaked on April 12, 2018. On September 9, 2020, the exhibition was officially made available online, where the song can be streamed by Canadian residents.

## About the song

Aurora described the song as "very dark", adding that "it felt heavy in the studio as we were recording it", and that she aimed to preserve its simple beauty.

In an interview with *The Line of Best Fit* about why the song is one of her favorite songs she said:

> "I did this song for an installation at a museum in Montreal, I covered it in one of the rooms in his memory and it was really an honour. It was all of his life and achievements as pieces of art in the museum, and they asked artists to showcase his art so that people could see those that he influenced.
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> I really love this song. I know that he speaks of the Second World War and I think that's not often spoken about, considering how much pain it brought the world. Also, in art and music we don't really paint or sing much about it but it's important that people talk about it, because it's something we carry on our shoulders and we did it to each other as a species.
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> I think about it a lot, but it's good to distance ourselves from the memory too. I have a few songs about the matter, though some are more obvious than others."
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On September 9, 2020, the song was uploaded to the virtual exhibition on MAC's website, but it remained undiscovered until December 26, 2022. The website notes the song was produced by both AURORA and Magnus Skylstad, and recorded and mixed by Magnus Skylstad.

Aurora stated the following about the song on the website:

> "The love of Leonard Cohen, and an explanation of why
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> When I was little I loved to run in the rain... and if it rained, as I was walking home from school, it usually took me thirty minutes longer. I remember my mother understanding the magic in it, but also constantly trying to explain to me the risk of getting ill. And every time I changed out of my wet clothes, getting quite cold, my mother put on "Leonard Cohen" in the background. It made me really fall in love with the rain, and autumn. And being cold and wet knowing you'll soon get dry and warm again. The calmness his songs gave my heart and mind, I haven’t felt from any other music since.
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> It also makes me calm to know that his music will always remind me of being a child, of a warm home and a warm mother, if I ever find myself without both. It gives me the feeling I can't truly lose anything, as long as I have these songs to remind me of them. Two of Mr. Cohen's songs have always found their way into my skin, built little warm places in my veins and felt home in me: *Suzanne* and *The Partisan*. There is something in the melody and nerve that explains to you what the song is about without even knowing the words. I knew it a long time before I could speak English. I felt it. I've always cherished songs that could communicate with humans on several levels. Not only with words, melodies and rhythms, but also energy, pain, happiness and in ways you can’t even make sense of yourself.
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> Words are power. And I'm very glad and grateful that there are people in this world that can remind us of that. It inspired me a lot in the beginning of my little career as a musician, to choose my words with care. And not waste space in people's minds. Fill music with beautiful information, whatever that information might be. If it's in the words, in a melody, or in the silence. All equally important. Cohen was a part of teaching me that.
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> Leonard Cohen will always be a very beautiful mark on human history, a mark that started when he was born but didn't end when he went away."
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## Lyrics

When they poured across the border

I was cautioned to surrender

This I could not do

I took my gun and vanished

An old woman gave us shelter

Kept us hidden in the garret

Then the soldiers came

She died without a whisper

There were three of us this morning

I'm the only one this evening

But I must go on

The frontiers are my prison

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing

Through the graves the wind is blowing

Freedom soon will come

Then we'll come from the shadows

Les Allemands étaient chez moi

Ils me dirent "Résigne-toi"

Mais je n'ai pas pu

J'ai repris mon arme

J'ai changé cent fois de nom

J'ai perdu femme et enfants

Mais j'ai tant d'amis

J'ai la France entière

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing

Through the graves the wind is blowing

Freedom soon will come

Then we'll come from the shadows

These lyrics include lines written in French, an English translation here:

Lyrics transcribed by listening.

## Audio

Aurora - The Partisan (Unreleased - Studio Version)
## Trivia

* One of the other artists contributing to the exhibit replied on his Instagram post in 2017 to a question if his song could be bought: "Good question, not yet. All the works in the exhibition are exclusive for the first couple of years, so if you want to hear/see the work you have to visit."
* There are some differences in lyrics between the original French song and the Cohen/Zaret adaptation. Additionally, the lyrics were given a supposedly bad transcription in the printed text of official releases of Leonard Cohen's song. One of its lines, "Mais je n'ai pas pu (But I couldn't)" sounds like "Mais je n'ai pas peur (But I wasn't frightened)" in Cohen's song and the AURORA cover, according to fans the former is the correct spelling.

### Lyrics annotation

The Germans were at my home

They told me, "Surrender"

But I couldn't

I took my weapon again

I have changed names a hundred times

I have lost wife and children

But I have so many friends

I have all of France

## References

1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONe3bTj97vc
2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs5hOhI4pEE
3. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/mac-mus%C3%A9e-d-art-contemporain-leaonard-cohen-exhibition-1.4390129
4. ↑ https://warriorsweirdos.proboards.com/thread/1104/
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 https://expocohen.macm.org/en/gallery/works/loss-longing/the-partisan (restricted to Canada)
6. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/leonard-cohen-a-crack-in-everything-mac-preview-1.4381168
7. ↑ https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/listomania/aurora-chooses-nine-favourite-songs
8. ↑ https://warriorsweirdos.proboards.com/post/16078
9. ↑ https://leonardcohenforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=13912&hilit=peur