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  • Miossec

    Miossec

    Brest → English translation

  • 3 translations
    English
    +2 more
    , Chinese, Russian
    •
    4 translations of covers
    English, Breton
    +2 more
    , Portuguese, Spanish
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Brest

Click to see the original lyrics (French)
Do you hate me now
for daring leave Brest1 one day?
The harbour, the port or what's left of it,
the wind in Jean Jaurès Avenue.
I know we were that close of making it.
We were done eating our youth away,
we could have eaten up the leftovers
even in the middle of a downpour.
 
This bloody thunder keeps rolling over Brest2.
Make this goddamn rain stop!
This bloody thunder keeps rolling over Brest
Even the earth is keeling over.
 
The deserted Recouvrance
Siam Street and its drunken nights
This is not a lack of manners,
just the clouds and your caresses getting worn out.
 
This is not a manifesto,
not even a lecture, even less a preaching.
But I was bound to go extinct3 some day.
Must we always protect the species?
 
This bloody thunder keeps rolling over Brest.
Make this goddamn rain stop!
This bloody thunder keeps rolling over Brest.
Make this goddamn rain stop!
This bloody thunder keeps rolling over Brest
Even the earth is keeling over.
This bloody thunder keeps rolling over Brest
Does it devastate you too?
 
Does it devastate you too,
this handful of ashes we scatter?
Does at least someone soothe you now?
 
  • 1. the French city in Brittany
  • 2. "Tonnerre de Brest" is one of the favourite curses of Cpt. Haddock, Tintin's famous sidekick. I can't see how that pun could be translated
  • 3. that's a bit hard to get even for a native, but the idea is that he vanished like a species go extinct. "disparaître" can have both meanings
Original lyrics

Brest

Click to see the original lyrics (French)

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Collections with "Brest"
1.Top 100 des plus belles chansons françaises
2.Songs about Cities in France
3.Songs about Regions in France
Miossec: Top 3
1.Je m'en vais
2.Non non non non
3.Chansons Pour Les Amis
Idioms from "Brest"
1.moins une
Comments
IgeethecatIgeethecat    Sat, 27/10/2018 - 05:13

“Someone stops that rain, Got damn it!” — does it actually mean “Someone, please stop this God damn rain!” ?
It just sounds like someone stops the rain and the author is very upset about that ;)

IgeethecatIgeethecat    Sat, 27/10/2018 - 05:24

You still have that pesky little “s” in “Stop it!” (It is a command!) ;(

GavinGavin
   Wed, 31/10/2018 - 22:06

Ah yes, "someone please stop the rain" - imperative. To mirror the French use of "que". Literally something like "let it be that the rain stops" but that sounds very unusual. :)
You could also say something like "make this goddamn rain stop!"

deabanddeaband    Fri, 22/11/2019 - 16:50

Actually it just means "won't this goddam rain ever stop?"
In Brest is an oceanic city with constant precipitations throughout the year. We can guess the author has very often looked through the window thinking "I'm tired of this rain, tired of staying at home doing nothing, tired of this depressing grey sky..." ;)

deabanddeaband    Fri, 22/11/2019 - 18:00

> "Tonnerre de Brest" is one of the favourite curses of Cpt. Haddock, Tintin's famous sidekick. I can't see how that pun could be translated "Tonnerre de Brest" "Great Thunder (of Brest)" was made famous by Herge but he didn't invented it. This expression is quite old and we don't know where it cames from but the broadest accepted origin is that a very loud cannon shot was fired every time a prisoner escaped. 2 shots if the fugitive were less than 5, 3 shots if they were more numerous. The shots were loud enough to draw the attention of the whole city, so that citizens were warned and could potentially arrest the fugitives. Being from Brest myself, and about the same age than Miossec, I corroborate his somewhat-cliche-but-however-true depiction of Brest. A grey depressing city where rainy weather makes you want to drink alcohol (a cliche again, but corroborated by the stats ). But there is also some poetry behind this darkness, the unending waves of the sea breeze. Like the charm of an old black and white movie lol.

Basically, the author is saying "I have fondness for this memories of my youth but no nostalgia. I needed to go away and live my life" (Miossec was living in Belgium at the time of the song, after some time in Paris, South of France and Reunion; he has settled back in Brittany in 2007).

You should also watch the clip, made from old films of his youth (shot by his father). Although not everything was shot in Brest, it's the typical landscapes of Brittany.

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