Russia is waging a disgraceful war on Ukraine.     Stand With Ukraine!
How you can support Ukraine 🇺🇦 ❤️
LT → French → Yves Duteil → Quand les bateaux reviennent → English
✕
Share
Font size
Translation
Open French (Original)
Swap languages

When the boats come back

Click to see the original lyrics (French)
When the boats come back,
It remains on their flanks
Disappointing rags
Of the wind that takes them away,
When the boats come back…
And the sailors of the board
Can see the cliff growing,
And the curious malaise,
And the glimmers of the harbor,
Where women in the morning
Shivering under the shawl,
Have the lip a bit pale
And an uncertain heart.
 
Because it's the same wind,
Who shoots their lace,
Take their children away,
Then bring them back to them,
It gives to the gulls
This slow, so beautiful,
And made of their lovers
Unfaithful sailors.
 
When the boats come back…
They're tied to the dock,
The rope and the stake
For the only fruits of their work,
When the boats come back…
Then the sailors leave,
Exhausted by the fatigue
Even the ground sails
In the heart of their home,
The bed already undone
Covers itself with sighs,
And the women turn inside out,
And their hope reborn.
 
Because it's the same wind,
Which blows their candle,
A night where spring
Found them less beautiful,
It gives to the oceans
Some new wrinkles,
And shows to the kites
All the ways of heaven
 
So for a few days,
The time doesn’t exist,
It may be that’s why
That farewells are heavy
When the boats leave once again…
Women at dawn
At the time of departure,
Search in their handkerchief
To count to her selves the days,
The already so heavy grains
Of the ivory rosary,
And the impossible mooring
That leads to their love.
 
But it’s the same wind,
That brings back to the shore
A bit of the Ocean
On their face
Where the sea and time,
From a crossing to another
Have dug the wake
Strange and fascinating:
 
Of a boat that travels…
 
Original lyrics

Quand les bateaux reviennent

Click to see the original lyrics (French)

✕
Yves Duteil: Top 3
1.Prendre un enfant
2.Mélancolie
3.Pour les enfants du monde entier
Comments
La IsabelLa Isabel
   Sat, 28/05/2022 - 19:39

Ok, thanks Flora,

Is really the only thing you noticed ?

If that is the case, I'm happy and hope it will help Salve a Selva who demanded the translation !

Soon

La IsabelLa Isabel
   Sat, 28/05/2022 - 19:41

Ok, the changing is done!

ΚακομάζαληΚακομάζαλη    Sat, 28/05/2022 - 20:53

The translation is very good. I loved especially this stanza :
"Because it's the same wind
Which blows their candle
A night where spring
Found them less beautiful
It gives to the oceans
Some new wrinkles
And shows to the kites
All the ways of heaven"

P E R F E C T

La IsabelLa Isabel
   Sat, 28/05/2022 - 21:00

Ah, ok.

I think that with "capzise", it's the same problem that with "affondare". I mean that this verb is just for a boat or a ship, not to talk about a woman's heart. And it's exactly what the Wikipedia page explains. The first sentences talk about boats.

ΚακομάζαληΚακομάζαλη    Sat, 28/05/2022 - 21:21

Hehe what a strange coincidence! We had the same discussion some days before ( about a verb with similar meaning) when discussing about the poem " Πορτοκαλιά" of Σαχτούρης.Yes, poetry does that. Metaphors are the very essence of poetry, actually ( I may suggest you watch a wonderful movie btw:" Il postino" ). Metaphor is a greek word meaning literally " to transfer". Here we have an attribute of material things being transferred to a person. It's strange ( this is also something poetry does, the famous defamiliarization that Russian formalists have pointed out) since we have been used to see metaphors be the other way around.
I will soon translate a greek-cypriot poem where again we have the same verb ( πουκουππίζουμαι in cypriot greek, αναποδογυρίζομαι in standard greek) with the very same meaning of being turned upside down the way a cup of coffee does :P
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/kostas-montis-fentzianin-lyrics.html

La IsabelLa Isabel
   Sat, 28/05/2022 - 21:09

When/ Where, it's not a bing changing. I did it.
You said "Perfect", but I didn't write the text, if there is perfection, it's first to Yves Duteil that we must say "thank you"!

La IsabelLa Isabel
   Sat, 28/05/2022 - 21:50

This remembers me something, I think it's the poem you translated in Spanish talking about a girl "al revés".
I didn't know what you wanted to say at this moment, but know I think it's the same idea, the same metaphor.
I didn't think about your translation doing this one, but yes it's coincidence and this song allows us to exchange about this while it was still a little suspended.

↑↓