Lyrics
They grew up without saying I am
In blended families
Where the man carries the present
The name
The woman carries the conditional
The man carries the future
The woman carries the rearranged subjunctive
Of a future not so simple
The family tongue
Can say I am
Or I am not
I am only a fading memory
Or I am persistence
The tongue can affirm presence
Or erase it
I erase
Who you are
Id sing sure
But I aint able
Id speak sure
But I dont rightly know how
Still Ill go on
Ill make the coffee
Order in the memory of words
Is saying I when the other says go
It is acting when the other waits
It is being a passive ignorance
And obedient
I carry my name when they call me
I carry my body when it lies down
I carry awakenings when others fall asleep
And I am the presence that nourishes
I am
I have existed
The ignorant one is the woman of the past
Who speaks a broken language
With words that no longer belong
To the idea we now have of the world
Words of women
Who were nevertheless mothers
Who raised their children
In a submissive language
To the one who says go like a war
These women whose hands
Were worn down by their tongue
They are our grandmothers
Those who lived through war
I carry my name when they knock
I carry my body when it stands upright
I carry awakenings when others collapse
And I am the presence that nourishes
I am
I have existed
Awakening the courage of these women
Is driving their uncertainties into retreat
And making them fully female beings
When France remembered
That these women had existed
The country asked them to feed the nation
As one fuses with a homeland
They were mothers and workers
They became flag bearers
And in the etymology of to be I am
They became the other half of man
The mother alongside the father
The other pillar of the family
I carry my name when I am welcomed
I carry my body when it is seated
I carry awakenings while others argue
And I am the presence that smiles
I am
I have existed
The good family man of the civil code
Became a woman in the making
Who nourishes and speaks to others
Saying I am no longer what I was
Because war passed through me
I became what I had to be
Today
I no longer breathe
In the exhale of man
I breathe in the breath of loving
I breathe in the breath of being mother
The one they call for help
I inhale worlds and civilizations
I exhale breaths that cross time
I give more than I receive
Because intelligence is a sun
I carry my name like a star
I carry my body that has lived
I carry awakenings rocked by dreams
And I am the presence that nourishes
I am
I have existed
From our grandmothers
To us women of today
There are conquests made of silent wars
Passed down to us at home
Our monument all of us women
Is being women
In a world where looking toward tomorrow
Is done through the eyes of little girls
I carry my name like one carries the future
I carry my body like a fragile child
I carry awakenings like a certain hope
And I am the presence that nourishes
I am
I have existed
Id sing sure
Whats stopping me now
Id speak sure
All I need
Is to learn
Credits & ownership