Home Home
Join us
Russia is waging a disgraceful war on Ukraine.     Stand With Ukraine!
How you can support Ukraine 🇺🇦 ❤️
LT → French, English, Italian → Carla Bruni → La Blonde exquise → English
  • Carla Bruni

    Carla Bruni

    La Blonde exquise → English translation

  • 2 translations
    English, Turkish
✕
Share
Font size
Translation
Open French (Original)
Swap languages

The exquisite Blonde

Click to see the original lyrics (French)
Oh my delicious,
oh my deceiver,
my little boaster,
my merry widow,
when I light you,
you my exquisite blond,
you dispel my mists,
oh the naughty girl,
hanging on my lips,
who swanks and shines,
my non-U friend,
my mischievous pupil,
when you light me up
I toy with the devil,
the devil aye, aye, aye, aye, aye,
yes the devil aye, aye, aye, aye, aye.
 
In order, after love, and in order, before death1,
to fill with smoke rings the sleeping sky's pool,
to do as did Gainsbourg,2
to do as did Marlène,3
to challenge fate,
oh my old lady,4
my little sorceress,
when I inhale you,
my God what pleasure,
my teenage girl,
you will make me snuff it5 tempting me so much.
aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye
yes, you tempt me,
aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye.
 
When I deprive myself of you,
when I'm doing Lent,
something breaks,
something wilts,
the silk of my spirit6 is softly torn apart,
when I tell myself to behave, when I put behind me
your soft greys,
our wild nights,
I feel my youth leaving the shore,
so come then little one,
poisonous tenderness, silent calm, forbidden sweetness,
we must drop each other, we must forget each other, we must part,
oh my trusted friend,
my study nights,
my chapel of rest,
my burning defeat.
I have to try to forget your taste, your sweet torment,
aye, aye, aye, aye, aye,
you torment me
aye, aye, aye, aye, aye.
 
  • 1. A shared cigarette after intercourse is nothing unusual, but "before death"?
  • 2. Almost all pictures of Serge Gainsbourg show him smoking, and he had a remarkable ashtray collection
  • 3. perhaps people picture Marlène Dietrich as a seductive figure with a cigarette in a long holder, like something out of a rather old spy film; but I don't know that she actually smoked much, just that France, America and Israel all decorated her highly for her anti-Nazi work
  • 4. "réguliere" is a bit ambiguous; it could mean "regular daily routine" rather than "long term partner of the opposite sex" ("old lady" in the slang of much of England)
  • 5. die
  • 6. or soul
Original lyrics

La Blonde exquise

Click to see the original lyrics (French)

✕
Carla Bruni: Top 3
1.Quelqu'un m'a dit
2.L'Amour
3.Chanson triste
Comments
michealtmichealt
   Sat, 08/04/2017 - 21:19

Thanks for that.

"enfumeuse" with that sense is something I haven't come across before. It didn't help that TLF contains neither "enfumeur" nor "enfumeuse" (not even as derivatives of "enfumer") and neither does Collin's Fr-En dictionary nor their Fr-Fr dictionary, and nor does dictionary-fr.com. Having seen your comment, I tried Wiktionnaire - and got "enfumeur" as an adjective meaning "qui trompe" which confirmed what you said. I went for the English word "deceiver" as that covers the various possible meanings of trompeuse.

"infréquentable" is something of a problem. If "pariah" is too strong I guess the only single word that fits is "untouchable", but that's quite strong too (the thing about the Pariah was that they were so unacceptable that they couldn't have any caste at all, not even any of the untouchable castes, so even in an Indian context it's not as strong as Pariah; but it's still very strong there, although the campaigns to get untouchables into higher education seemed to be having some effect when I was spending time out there).

"avant la mort": some time back somone told me some weird story about CB and referred to this line arising from it; I can't remember the details, or even who told me it, nor find any evidence of it so I'll just drop that part of the footnote.

old lady: I must NOT put typos in the layout control text!!!!

"lâche": I'll go for "drop each other" - that's quite strong.

michealtmichealt
   Mon, 10/04/2017 - 01:32

I like that article. It reads as if Frnch politicians 4 years ago were much like British politicians.

For "infréquentable", I've remembered a very modern word (non-U) which means something like "regarded by members of high society as socially or culturally unacceptable" (this could be for something disgraceful or something trvial). It was originally coined in the early 1950s by a professional linguist to describe the vocabulkarly of the English Middle Class (and U for "Upper Class described the vocabulary of the aristocracy/upper class and the "working classes" who, not surprisingly. used the same words), but it soon came to be used in connection with other social matters as well as language.

↑↓