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The Sea
The sea,
which we see dancing, along the clear gulfs, 1
has silvery shimmers.
The sea,
of changing shimmers,
under the rain.
The sea,
under a summer sky confuses,
her whitecap sheep,
with angels so pure.
The sea, shepherdess of blue,
endless. 2
Now look,
near the ponds,
these tall wet reeds.
Now look,
these white birds,
and those rusty houses.
The sea,
lulled them,
along the clear gulfs.
And with a love song,
the sea
has lulled my heart for life.
- 1. These should be two lines in French and English, but I kept as one to allow more easily following line-by-line.
- 2. Here, Trenet plays with words and uses the French equivalent of whitecaps (the crests of breaking waves under adverse wind), which are called white sheep. He then implies that they are forming a herd whose shepherdess is the endless blue sea.
J-O Racine
David Ephraim✕
Translations of "La mer"
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About translator
I'm sorry to create yet another translation! However, I took the best part of several of the other ones to try to make the most exact translation possible, so as to keep the meaning, yet, tried to keep it flowing... Mostly based on #15. Also, I made the rhythm clearer with comas, because the original lyrics are kind of all over the place and don't represent the rhythm of the song well or high it should have been transcribed.