On the coffin covered with white roses exhibited in the Mauméjean room of the crematorium of the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, lexicographer Danièle Morvan places a photograph of her late husband, Alain Rey, immortalized with… a red nose.
The funeral of the pope of the dictionaries was frankly "not gloomy" this Wednesday afternoon, like the personality of the maestro of the words disappeared a week earlier at 92 years.
"Death of his age, death of his talent, death of his fatigue," says his widow.
Thirty masked relatives, not one more as required by the health protocol of the funeral in these times of pandemic, came to say goodbye to the lover of verbs and adverbs.
“Come on the DJ!
», Launches the iconoclast Danièle Morvan to the employee of the crematorium.
The ceremony then begins with the poem "Thought of the dead" by Alphonse de Lamartine set to music and sung by Georges Brassens: "Here are the leaves without sap which fall on the grass, here is the wind which rises and moans in the valley. … ”
Sanitary protocol requires, only thirty relatives were able to attend the funeral at Père-Lachaise.
/ LP / Vincent Mongaillard
The sincere tributes follow.
Maya, a professor of letters friend of the couple, is the first to praise the doctor of etymologies.
“I liked you as soon as I saw you.
Behind the words, there was a man, a great man, ”she applauds.
And to salute his "benevolence", his "generosity", his "talents as a storyteller and humorist", his "eyes always ready to joke", his "taste for gourmet meals", his "improbable ties" ... " Goodbye Alain, I don't like pantheons, I prefer libraries and songs, I'm sure you will too, ”she concludes.
"I have come to bring you the letter C"
It is the turn of Charles Bimbenet, general manager of the Robert editions, to speak and to remember the visits of the linguist “adventurer” and to “total freedom” within the walls of the publishing house.
"We heard his footsteps, and suddenly the voice so familiar:
I was passing by, I came to bring the letter C
.
Because Alain never stopped working, the Historical Dictionary of the French language kept him busy until his last day, ”he admires.
“Your presence among us was always a celebration,” he thanks.
The 53-year-old friend, the Italian Giovanni Dotoli, professor of French language and literature, is the most moved.
“He is the greatest linguist and lexicographer of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, he is a monument of the French language that we all want to respect and honor.
Alain is eternal ”, promises the septuagenarian academic.
"Alain knew everything about everything, I think it's true"
The little sister of the scholar with long white hair remembers the "big brother" who, when she was a child, in 1948, "taught jazz" to her.
The goddaughter evokes, for her part, an “uncle and godfather” having offered her, as a child, “the Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
“It has become the book of my life,” she appreciates.
The literary critic Olivier Barrot confirms that the scholar who looked like Professor Tournesol was indeed a living encyclopedia.
It is therefore not a legend.
"Alain knew everything about everything, I think it's true", he admits, listing his culture of gastronomy, wine, football, comics, slam ...
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The sound system broadcasts an excerpt from the "Saint John Passion" by Johann Sebastian Bach.
It's time to say goodbye to Petit Robert's father, who never went unnoticed with his orange pants and lumberjack shirts.
Or rather “Hi!
", Title, in 2006, of his last column" the Word of the end "which he had held in the morning of France Inter during thirteen years.