• Manu Chao

    English translation

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French
Original lyrics

La vie à deux

Donnez-moi de quoi tenir tenir
Je ne veux pas dormir dormir
Laissez-moi voir venir le jour
 
Donnez-moi de quoi tenir tenir
Je ne veux pas dormir dormir
Laissez-moi voir venir le jour
 
Donnez-moi de quoi tenir tenir
Je ne veux pas dormir dormir
Laissez-moi voir venir le jour
 
Donnez-moi de quoi tenir tenir
Je ne veux pas dormir dormir
Laissez-moi voir venir le jour
 
Notre vie à deux s’arrête donc la
Dans les grandes plaines des peines à jouir
D'une vie qui ne veut plus rien dire
 
J’espère ne plus jamais faire souffrir quelqu'un
Comme je t'ai fait souffrir
 
Je n’étais qu'un mauvais présage
On s'est aimé
Puis vint l'orage
Moi qui aimais tellement ton sourire
 
J’espère ne plus jamais faire souffrir quelqu'un
Comme je t'ai fait souffrir
 
Pourquoi pourquoi même quand les gens s'aiment
Il y a, il y a, toujours des problèmes?
 
Fallait pas qu'on se connaisse
Fallait pas qu’on soit deux
Fallait pas se rencontrer et puis tomber amoureux
 
Notre vie à deux s’arrête donc là
La où les dieux ne s'aventurent pas
Moi qui aimais tellement ton sourire
 
Pourquoi, pourquoi, même quand les gens s'aiment
Il y a, il y a, toujours des problèmes?
 
Moi qui aimais tellement ton sourire
Je n'entends plus que tes soupirs
 
J’espère ne plus jamais faire souffrir
Quelqu'un comme je t'ai fait souffrir
 
Moi qui aimais tellement ton sourire
Je n'entends plus que tes soupirs
 
Donnez-moi de quoi tenir tenir
Je ne veux pas dormir dormir
Laissez-moi voir venir le jour
 
Donnez-moi de quoi tenir tenir
Je ne veux pas dormir dormir
Laissez-moi voir venir le jour
 
Donnez-moi de quoi tenir tenir
Je ne veux pas dormir dormir
Laissez-moi voir venir le jour
 
Il est minuit à Tokyo
Il est cinq heures au Mali
Quelle heure est-il au paradis?
 
Il est minuit à Tokyo
Il est cinq heures au Mali
Quelle heure est-il au paradis?
 
Il est minuit à Tokyo
Il est cinq heures au Mali
Quelle heure est-il au paradis?
 
English
Translation#1#2

Life together (life of the two of us together)

Give me something to hold onto, hold onto
I cannot sleep, sleep
Let me see the day/daylight coming ...
So our life together stops right here
In the great plains/fields of pains - to lead/leading
A life that does not have anything to say nothing ("does not want to say")
I hope I'll never make anyone suffer
As I have made you suffer
I was nothing but a bad omen
We loved each other
Then came the thunderstorm
I, who loved your smile so much ...
I hope I'll never make anyone suffer
As I have made you suffer
Why, why, even when (two) people love each other
there are, there are always problems?
We should not have come to know each other
We should not have lived, the two of us, together
We should not have met and fallen in love with each other
Our life together thus ends
Here where the gods do not dare/venture (to come)
I who loved your smile so much ...
Why, why, even when (two) people love each other
there are, there are always problems?
No more can I hear anything but your sighs
I hope I'll never make anyone suffer
As I have made you suffer
I who loved your smile so much
No more can I hear anything but your sighs
Give me something to hold onto, hold onto
I cannot sleep, sleep
Let me see the day/daylight coming ...
It is midnight in Tokyo
It is five in Mali
What time is it in paradise?
 

Translations of "La vie à deux"

English #1, #2
Comments
francophilefrancophile
   Sat, 25/04/2015 - 12:18

I submitted a translation and do not know how to edit it, so I'll just put the two corrections down here.
The second line should read "I do not want to sleep" (just as in the other translation, I just somehow remembered the original as "Je ne peux pas dormir" instead of "je ne veux pas ...", sorry!)
The word "nothing" on the sixth line of the translation is superfluous (I tried out several versions and this word is a remnant of an earlier version). The line should read "A life that does not have anything to say any more". It would perhaps be even more exact to translate it as "A life that does not mean anything any more", cf "Qu'est que ca veut dire?" - "What does THIS mean?"/ "What do you mean by this?".
The misprints in the original:
On s'est aim > should be: "On s'est aimés"
Pouquoi pourquoi mme quand les gens s'aiment > "meme" = even(with a "roof" symbol on it - but those diacritics are missing from the whole text, anyway)
Notre vie deux s'arrete donc l
La o les dieux ne s'aventurent pas > Notre vie à deux s'arrete donc
La où les dieux ne s'aventurent pas

I should add, in a preventive gesture of self-defence, that my aim was to give a precise translation of the meaning rather than create a poetic version in English. The real poetry in the lyrics of French songs is actually created via a combination of the sound and the sense, i.e., the phonetic and the semantic sides, anyway. Yet the exact meaning is also important. "Give me something to hold" is not the same as "Give me something to hold onto", "Let me come in the day" - not quite idiomatic English, IMHO - is not the same as "Let me see the day(daylight) come", and "the large fields of hills" is definitely not the same as "the large plains (or even perhaps better the great plains) of pains" - the story is about pain, after all, I just wonder where the hills came from. "I only hear you sigh" should have been, at the very least, "I now only hear you sigh", "let you suffer" is rather passive as compared to "made your suffer" in the original, etc. "I love you smile", again, is not the same as the original "I loved your smile" (in the past tense). But, more importantly, the line with the gods is not unimportant enough to be left out altogether:

Notre vie à deux s'arrete donc
Là où les dieux ne s'aventurent pas

So our life together ends
where the gods do not venture/dare to come/go into (or: in a place into which the gods do not venture/dare to come/go).

The line does a great deal to intensify the feeling of despair, essentially "our life together ends in a place dark/terrible enough for the gods to be afraid of".

It is true that the French original as presented here has two seriously misleading mistakes in these very two lines ("vie deux", and "La o les dieux" instead of "vie à deux" and "La où les dieux", "o" is simply "oh" and does not make sense at all whereas "où" means "where", see above; is there any way on this site to correct mistakes in the originals?).

Two other lines, although already present once, also deserve to be repeated where they are repeated in the original, the repetition has a function to serve, IMHO.

Anyway, it would be great if somebody made a translation that is shorter and more poetic than mine, but perhaps not quite at the expense of the meaning?

Now I suppose I go and finally listen to the song itself - I just happened to hit this site when searching for the film "La vie à deux", and, as I said in the Author's commentary, mistakes in translations of the lyrics of French songs just disturb me too much to be able to let go:)

FaryFary
   Thu, 30/04/2015 - 18:32

There's an edit button above the artist's name, so you can edit your translation if you wish to do so. Also, if there are mistakes in the original lyrics, you can ask a moderator to correct them in the forums, for example.

FloppylouFloppylou
   Mon, 11/12/2023 - 09:39

The source lyrics have been updated. Please review your translation.