A Brief Message to our French Friends

by Tom Kando

Here is an e-mail I sent to my friends and relatives in Paris and in France:

Ca fait une semaine que cette horreur est arrivée. Nous pensons sans cesse a vous, et a Paris, la ville d’ou jaillis toujours l’espoire et l’illumination pour le reste du monde...

Sachez donc que meme ici, de l’autre cote de la terre, la grande majorite des gens pensent a vous, du matin au soir. C’est etonnant...et bien, quand-meme: Que meme les petits provinciaux qui n’ont jamais quitte leurs petites villes et leurs campagnes si loin de chez vous, realisent que quelque-chose d’horrible et mondialement important s’est passe a Paris.

Quand on heurte Paris, la terre entiere le sent, et en souffre. Notre coeur appartient a Paris. Nous sommes tous des Parisiens.(translation next)


(It has been over a week since this horror happened. We constantly think of you, and about Paris, the city from where springs always hope and illumination for the rest of the world. Know that even here, on the other side of the globe, a great majority of the people think about you, from morning till evening. It is amazing...and it is good: That even simple provincial people who have never left their small towns and their countryside so far away from you, realize that something horrible and of worldwide importance happened in Paris last week. When one hurts Paris, the whole world suffers. Our hearts belong to Paris. We are all Parisians). leave comment here

© Tom Kando 2015