Les Deux Rives
The Two Riverbanks
Separated for years by the Congo River and by different life paths, two childhood friends from Kinshasa and Brazzaville meet again at a festival.
- friendship
- change
- circumstance
Tap an underlined word to see its meaning.
What you'll encounter
- Grammar
- imparfait for childhood routine
- plus-que-parfait for the intervening years
- conditionnel (reviendrait, resterait)
- bien que + subjunctive
- Vocabulary
- river and fishing vocabulary
- abstract nouns (la distance, la nostalgie, le souvenir)
- Skills
- tracking two characters' diverging life paths summarized through imparfait/plus-que-parfait
- accepting a deliberately unresolved ending about future contact
Quand ils étaient enfants, Landry et Modeste passaient presque toutes leurs vacances d’été au bord du fleuve Congo, lui du côté de Kinshasa, Modeste du côté de Brazzaville, séparés par quelques kilomètres d’eau que leurs familles traversaient régulièrement en bateau pour se rendre visite.
Show English
When they were children, Landry and Modeste spent almost every summer vacation on the banks of the Congo River, he on the Kinshasa side, Modeste on the Brazzaville side, separated by a few kilometers of water that their families regularly crossed by boat to visit each other.
À l’époque, la distance entre les deux villes ne semblait être qu’un détail géographique ; ils se voyaient presque chaque week-end, pêchaient ensemble sur la rive, et rêvaient à voix haute de grandir dans la même ville un jour, peu importait laquelle.
Show English
At the time, the distance between the two cities seemed like a mere geographical detail; they saw each other almost every weekend, fished together on the riverbank, and dreamed out loud of growing up in the same city one day, it hardly mattered which.
Ils avaient même inventé, enfants, un code secret de signaux à la lampe torche, échangés chaque soir d’un rivage à l’autre avant de dormir, convaincus que personne d’autre au monde ne comprendrait jamais leur langage.
Show English
As children, they had even invented a secret flashlight signal code, exchanged every evening from one bank to the other before bed, convinced that no one else in the world would ever understand their language.
Puis les études, le travail, et la vie elle-même les avaient progressivement éloignés : Landry était resté à Kinshasa, où il avait fini par diriger une petite entreprise d’import-export, tandis que Modeste avait choisi de rester pêcheur à Brazzaville, comme son père et son grand-père avant lui.
Show English
Then school, work, and life itself had gradually pulled them apart: Landry had stayed in Kinshasa, where he eventually came to run a small import-export business, while Modeste had chosen to remain a fisherman in Brazzaville, like his father and grandfather before him.
Pendant près de quinze ans, les deux amis ne s’étaient revus que deux ou trois fois, toujours brièvement, lors de mariages ou d’enterrements familiaux où la politesse exigeait leur présence plutôt que leur envie réelle de se retrouver.
Show English
For almost fifteen years, the two friends had only seen each other two or three times, always briefly, at family weddings or funerals where politeness required their presence more than any real wish to reconnect.
Ce samedi-là, pourtant, un grand festival culturel réunissait les deux rives pour la première fois depuis des années, avec des concerts organisés simultanément sur les deux quais, visibles et audibles d’une rive à l’autre.
Show English
That Saturday, though, a big cultural festival brought the two riverbanks together for the first time in years, with concerts organized simultaneously on both docks, visible and audible from one bank to the other.
Des percussionnistes congolais et des groupes de rumba kinoise se succédaient sur les deux scènes, et la musique, portée par le vent, traversait le fleuve presque sans distorsion, comme si elle refusait, elle aussi, de reconnaître la frontière entre les deux villes.
Show English
Congolese percussionists and Kinshasa rumba bands took turns on the two stages, and the music, carried by the wind, crossed the river almost without distortion, as if it too refused to recognize the border between the two cities.
Landry, invité par un collègue à représenter son entreprise sur un stand, a reconnu de loin, parmi la foule venue de Brazzaville par bateau, la silhouette familière de Modeste, un peu plus large et plus grise qu’au souvenir qu’il en gardait.
Show English
Landry, invited by a colleague to represent his company at a booth, spotted from a distance, among the crowd that had come from Brazzaville by boat, Modeste's familiar silhouette, a little broader and grayer than he remembered.
Les deux hommes se sont approchés lentement, presque timides, avant de finalement se serrer la main puis de s’embrasser, riant tous les deux de leur gêne initiale, comme si quinze ans n’avaient finalement pas tant changé leurs vieux réflexes d’enfance.
Show English
The two men approached each other slowly, almost shy, before finally shaking hands and then hugging, both laughing at their initial awkwardness, as if fifteen years hadn't really changed their old childhood instincts after all.
Landry a remarqué, en serrant la main de son ami, que les paumes de Modeste restaient aussi calleuses qu’autrefois, façonnées par des années de filets et de cordages, alors que les siennes, habituées désormais aux poignées de porte et aux claviers d’ordinateur, avaient perdu toute trace de ce travail physique partagé.
Show English
Shaking his friend's hand, Landry noticed that Modeste's palms were still as calloused as before, shaped by years of nets and ropes, while his own, now used to door handles and computer keyboards, had lost every trace of that once-shared physical work.
Un vendeur ambulant, en passant près d’eux avec un plateau de , a reconnu machinalement en Modeste le fils du pêcheur bien connu du quartier, preuve que, de ce côté du fleuve au moins, certaines choses n’avaient pas bougé depuis leur enfance.
Show English
A street vendor, passing by with a tray of skewers, automatically recognized Modeste as the well-known local fisherman's son, proof that, on this side of the river at least, some things hadn't changed since their childhood.
Ils ont parlé pendant des heures, assis sur le même quai où ils pêchaient autrefois, Landry racontant ses voyages d’affaires jusqu’en Europe, Modeste décrivant les changements du fleuve, les poissons devenus plus rares, les nouvelles réglementations de pêche qui l’inquiétaient.
Show English
They talked for hours, sitting on the very dock where they used to fish, Landry describing his business trips all the way to Europe, Modeste describing the changes in the river, the fish that had grown scarcer, the new fishing regulations that worried him.
Modeste a expliqué que certains jours, il remontait désormais ses filets presque vides, et que plusieurs familles de pêcheurs qu’il connaissait depuis toujours envisageaient sérieusement d’abandonner complètement le métier pour chercher du travail en ville.
Show English
Modeste explained that these days, some days he pulled in nets that were almost empty, and that several fishing families he had known all his life were seriously considering leaving the trade altogether to look for work in the city.
À un moment, Modeste a demandé à Landry s’il reviendrait un jour vivre près du fleuve, et Landry a répondu, avec un petit rire qui cachait mal son hésitation, que son travail ne le permettait plus vraiment, mais qu’il y pensait, parfois, le soir, sans trop savoir si c’était sérieux ou simplement nostalgique.
Show English
At one point, Modeste asked Landry whether he would ever come back to live near the river, and Landry answered, with a small laugh that poorly hid his hesitation, that his job didn't really allow it anymore, but that he thought about it sometimes, in the evening, without quite knowing if it was serious or just nostalgia.
Modeste, de son côté, a avoué qu’il n’avait jamais vraiment envisagé une autre vie que celle du fleuve, bien que ses enfants, eux, rêvent déjà de partir étudier à Kinshasa ou même plus loin, exactement comme lui autrefois rêvait de rester avec Landry.
Show English
Modeste, for his part, admitted he had never really considered any other life than the one on the river, even though his own children already dreamed of leaving to study in Kinshasa or even farther, exactly as he himself had once dreamed of staying with Landry.
Quand le festival a commencé à décliner, vers la fin de l’après-midi, les deux amis ont échangé leurs numéros de téléphone, en promettant, comme on le fait souvent dans ces moments-là, de s’appeler plus souvent cette fois.
Show English
As the festival began to wind down, toward late afternoon, the two friends exchanged phone numbers, promising, as people so often do in such moments, to call each other more often this time.
Landry a ajouté qu’il essaierait de venir à Brazzaville avant la fin de l’année, et Modeste a répondu qu’il l’attendrait sur la même rive où ils pêchaient enfants, sans vraiment insister davantage sur la question.
Show English
Landry added that he would try to come to Brazzaville before the end of the year, and Modeste replied that he would wait for him on the same riverbank where they used to fish as children, without really pressing the matter any further.
Au moment de se séparer, alors que le bateau de Modeste s’éloignait déjà vers l’autre rive, Landry est resté un long moment immobile sur le quai, le téléphone encore dans la main, à regarder le fleuve qui, depuis toujours, les rapprochait autant qu’il les séparait.
Show English
As they parted, with Modeste's boat already pulling away toward the other bank, Landry stayed still on the dock for a long moment, phone still in hand, watching the river that had always brought them together as much as it had kept them apart.
Il ne pouvait pas dire, en rentrant chez lui ce soir-là, si ce nouveau numéro resterait longtemps dans son téléphone, ou s’il rejoindrait, avec le temps, tous les autres bons souvenirs que la vie avait simplement laissés de côté.
Show English
He couldn't say, as he went home that evening, whether this new number would stay long in his phone, or whether it would eventually join all the other good memories that life had simply set aside.
Show full English translation
When they were children, Landry and Modeste spent almost every summer vacation on the banks of the Congo River, he on the Kinshasa side, Modeste on the Brazzaville side, separated by a few kilometers of water that their families regularly crossed by boat to visit each other.
At the time, the distance between the two cities seemed like a mere geographical detail; they saw each other almost every weekend, fished together on the riverbank, and dreamed out loud of growing up in the same city one day, it hardly mattered which.
As children, they had even invented a secret flashlight signal code, exchanged every evening from one bank to the other before bed, convinced that no one else in the world would ever understand their language.
Then school, work, and life itself had gradually pulled them apart: Landry had stayed in Kinshasa, where he eventually came to run a small import-export business, while Modeste had chosen to remain a fisherman in Brazzaville, like his father and grandfather before him.
For almost fifteen years, the two friends had only seen each other two or three times, always briefly, at family weddings or funerals where politeness required their presence more than any real wish to reconnect.
That Saturday, though, a big cultural festival brought the two riverbanks together for the first time in years, with concerts organized simultaneously on both docks, visible and audible from one bank to the other.
Congolese percussionists and Kinshasa rumba bands took turns on the two stages, and the music, carried by the wind, crossed the river almost without distortion, as if it too refused to recognize the border between the two cities.
Landry, invited by a colleague to represent his company at a booth, spotted from a distance, among the crowd that had come from Brazzaville by boat, Modeste's familiar silhouette, a little broader and grayer than he remembered.
The two men approached each other slowly, almost shy, before finally shaking hands and then hugging, both laughing at their initial awkwardness, as if fifteen years hadn't really changed their old childhood instincts after all.
Shaking his friend's hand, Landry noticed that Modeste's palms were still as calloused as before, shaped by years of nets and ropes, while his own, now used to door handles and computer keyboards, had lost every trace of that once-shared physical work.
A street vendor, passing by with a tray of skewers, automatically recognized Modeste as the well-known local fisherman's son, proof that, on this side of the river at least, some things hadn't changed since their childhood.
They talked for hours, sitting on the very dock where they used to fish, Landry describing his business trips all the way to Europe, Modeste describing the changes in the river, the fish that had grown scarcer, the new fishing regulations that worried him.
Modeste explained that these days, some days he pulled in nets that were almost empty, and that several fishing families he had known all his life were seriously considering leaving the trade altogether to look for work in the city.
At one point, Modeste asked Landry whether he would ever come back to live near the river, and Landry answered, with a small laugh that poorly hid his hesitation, that his job didn't really allow it anymore, but that he thought about it sometimes, in the evening, without quite knowing if it was serious or just nostalgia.
Modeste, for his part, admitted he had never really considered any other life than the one on the river, even though his own children already dreamed of leaving to study in Kinshasa or even farther, exactly as he himself had once dreamed of staying with Landry.
As the festival began to wind down, toward late afternoon, the two friends exchanged phone numbers, promising, as people so often do in such moments, to call each other more often this time.
Landry added that he would try to come to Brazzaville before the end of the year, and Modeste replied that he would wait for him on the same riverbank where they used to fish as children, without really pressing the matter any further.
As they parted, with Modeste's boat already pulling away toward the other bank, Landry stayed still on the dock for a long moment, phone still in hand, watching the river that had always brought them together as much as it had kept them apart.
He couldn't say, as he went home that evening, whether this new number would stay long in his phone, or whether it would eventually join all the other good memories that life had simply set aside.
Words to know
- brochettes
- — skewers