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LT → French → Charles Trenet → La mer → English

La mer (English translation)

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English translationEnglish
/French
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The sea

Click to see the original lyrics (French)
The sea,
We see dancing along the shores of clear bays,
Shimmers with silver
The sea
Changing shimmers
Under the rain
 
The sea
With the summer sky
Mix up her white horses
With the angels so pure
The infinite azure shepherdess
Sea
 
Sea
By the ponds
Those big wet reeds
See
Those white birds
And those rusty houses
 
The sea
Has cradled them
Along the shores of clear bays
And with a love song
The sea
Has rocked my heart for life
 
Thanks!
❤
thanked 1981 times
Submitted by purplelunacypurplelunacy on Tue, 10/08/2010 - 15:35
4
Your rating: None Average: 4 (3 votes)
French
French
French

La mer

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Please help to translate "La mer"
French → Arabic Arsène
French → Danish Arsène
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Comments
zse4xdr5zse4xdr5    Mon, 15/10/2012 - 10:28
5

great idiomatic English translation - thanks a lot

gilgamesh969gilgamesh969    Mon, 12/08/2013 - 21:21

Thanks for the translation. It got me thinking -
Les moutons is the french word for whitecaps and for sheep. (metaphor, zoomorphism?) So the references to shepherdess and moutons is a nice play on words. If you were to keep it, you might say:

I took a shot at:
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/la-mer-sea.html-4

annabellannaannabellanna    Thu, 13/08/2015 - 07:57

Actually these horses look like a quite strange choice. I think that "blanc moutons" is referred to the clouds, and the sea is the sheperd that in his reflections make their shapes such indistinguible as you can confound them with angels.
I think it could be: "the sea acts like a jolly sheperd toward the sky, mixing angels and sheep.."
Without sheep, a sheperd looks a little bit out of his place, in my thoughts... Wink smile

annabellannaannabellanna    Thu, 13/08/2015 - 08:05

I apologize: I realize now that "moutons" also means the white foamy tops of the waves... Regular smile
In Italian language high waves are called "cavalloni"(big horses)!
I could have understood it before... Sad smile

RosseauRosseau    Thu, 31/12/2015 - 21:13

Just one suggestion: Charles Trenet was born and raised in Languedoc and reputedly wrote the poem after a train ride by the sea at the age of 16. An "etang" is a pond elsewhere in France but the Languedoc-Rousillon coast of La Mer is lined with bodies of water that are called etangs. These are far more than ponds. For example, the Etang de Thau is 21 km long, complete with white birds, banks of reeds and not a few terracotta colored houses. Something like "lagoon" would be a more fitting translation in my opinion.

Jennifer HerreraJennifer Herrera    Tue, 26/11/2019 - 02:15

I have listened to this song for many years; sexiest song ever written!

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