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    Francis Cabrel

    Les fontaines du jazz → English translation

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The fountains of jazz

Click to see the original lyrics (French)
All the local girls
Were learning to count
On the keys of a second-hand piano
 
Those who were counting on earning
A few cents of freedom
Were doomed before they'd begun
 
In the underworld bars
The beautiful black singers
Whipped up for two or three deadbeats
 
The red ebony haze
That flowed in their veins
And that came from the fountains of jazz
 
Ask Billy,
Chet or Louis
How it feels when life crushes you
 
You play and clear off
And you twig on the way
Love, it’s not there that you find it
 
It’s waiting somewhere
In leopard skin pants
Nearly naked under the gaslights
 
It’s in the arms of a whore
Not even made up
That fountains of jazz were born
 
Much higher than the music
Lower than the last B flat
It makes magnificent losers
From the winners cut down in full flight
 
Geniuses that no one explains
Asleep on the bare floor
The vices have taken all their money
And the cops all that was left of the alcohol
 
When I want some real life
Some beautiful melancholy
I don’t think about turquoise lagoons
 
I talk to Wes, to Oscar
To Ella in her scarves
And I go to drink at the fountains of jazz
 
Original lyrics

Les fontaines du jazz

Click to see the original lyrics (French)

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Francis Cabrel: Top 3
1.Je l'aime à mourir
2.Je t'aimais, je t'aime, je t'aimerai
3.L'encre de tes yeuxSubtitles
Comments
GavinGavin
   Mon, 01/08/2016 - 11:57

I see, I interpreted the "trois sous de liberté" as meaning "free" as in "spare" changes - but it's more like "a few pennies (worth of) freedom then.

That makes more sense - I'll check the CD sleeve when I get home on that one...

Yeah "faire mousser" - we can say "whip up" as in an egg-white - to make it big and frothy. I think it works pretty well in both languages.

Yep, Twig - to come to a sudden realisation. Handy :-)

GavinGavin
   Mon, 01/08/2016 - 20:10

Ah it's a bonus track - no lyrics on the CD. I must have trusted the 'net this. Always risky.
Fixed - I've gone with doomed before they begun - less literal but more idiomatic. :-)

sandringsandring    Mon, 01/08/2016 - 12:25

"Gagner Trois" means "to get 3s" - it's a pain killer used as drugs, I can't remember the name, the pills have number 3 minted on one side. Hope it helps. :)

sandringsandring    Mon, 01/08/2016 - 13:04

I'm in mood for French today. I'd translate the lines like this
Those (girls) who counted
On getting free 3s
Were initially to no end

sandringsandring    Mon, 01/08/2016 - 14:22

Well, mine is an option, of course, but then why can't they get their share of freedom? c'était déjà râpé à la base ?????

sandringsandring    Mon, 01/08/2016 - 15:26

Ah, shame on me! Sous - c'est l'argent!!!! I forgot they ever existed. Then the idiom is "two cents of freedom" in English. They counted on earning their two cents of freedom to basically no end. Thank you, gentlemen, it's a touching song. Sorry to have bothered you with my crazy ideas. 0)

GavinGavin
   Mon, 01/08/2016 - 16:24

I thought that might be the case! ;-)

I'm quite familiar with "trois sous" - it crops up in a few songs. Yeah the equivalent of two cents/two bits/a few pennies - anything that means a trifling amount.

:-)

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