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  • Leïla Huissoud

    Leïla Huissoud

    Les Cocus → English translation

  • 2 translations
    English, Russian
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Les Cocus

J'écris sur les amants perdus
Je fredonne pour les amants foutus
Je chante les amours cocus
 
Je danse pour celui d'un soir
Je joue pour celui dans le placard
Regarde et rougir ma guitare
 
Éloignez vous les fleurs bleus
Ceux qui veulent pas causer trottoir
Je vous compterai pas d'amour heureux
Si vous êtes seuls, lâchez vos bougeoirs
 
Les amoureux du bal perdu
Personne nous dit ce qu'ils sont devenus
Les seuls qui n'ont pas cessé de s'aimer
Sont Montaigu et Capulet
À croire qu'il faut vivre enterré
Pour ne jamais se tromper
 
Je vous demanderai de vous remémorer
Quelques uns de vos fantasmes passés
Avant de courir a l'église au bras de votre moitié
 
C'est vrai c'est intime ces histoires
Mais plus de pudeur dans nos mémoires
Au fond ce serait tous frères et sœurs
Si on avait le même facteur
 
Pardon si ma main exagère,
Elle écrit et prise de colère,
Aimez vous a la folie
Vos deux personnes, changez de lit
 
Les amoureux du bal perdu
Quelqu'un peut me dire ce qu'ils sont devenus
Les seuls qui n'ont pas cessé de s'aimer
Sont Montaigu et Capulet
À croire qu'il faut vivre enterré
Pour ne jamais se tromper
 
Translation

Cuckolds

I'm writing about doomed lovers,
I'm humming for done for lovers,
I'm singing tales of cuckolders1.
 
I'm dancing for the one-night fling,
for those in the wardrobe, hiding.
Just see how my guitar's blushing.
 
Get away, you mushy weaklings
shying from a truth you can't handle.
I'll give you no happy endings.
If you're alone, drop your candle.
 
Nobody says what came after
for these two lonely ball lovers2
Only Montague and Capulet
never ceased to love each other.
You'd think you'd need to be buried
to never pick the wrong lover.
 
I would ask you to look so far
as a few of your bedroom laughs
before rushing to the altar
arm in arm with your better half.
 
This sure is such intimate stuff,
modesty from the past falters.
Had the postman worked hard enough,
we'd all be brothers and sisters.
 
Sorry if my hand goes postal,
as it writes it gets angry too.
love each other like animals,
go and switch beds, the both of you.
 
Someone tell me what came after
for these two lonely ball lovers.
Only Montague and Capulet
never ceased to love each other.
You'd think you'd need to be buried
to never pick the wrong lover.
 
  • 1. The French goes "I'm singing about cuckolded loves" but, as Gavin said, I'm just going for the rhyme there :)
  • 2. a rather touching wink to this rather touching song of the 60's
✕
Collections with "Les Cocus"
1.Female Cheaters/Dangerous Women
Leïla Huissoud: Top 3
1.L'española
2.On s'connaît depuis longtemps
3.Le bistrot
Comments
BratBrat    Sun, 24/09/2017 - 11:46
petit élève wrote:

That girl really has a knack with words.

I'd say she is rolling the world at the tip of her tongue. (As I can judge from my level of French).

BratBrat    Sun, 24/09/2017 - 14:03
petit élève wrote:

Now you've done it. I'm starting to try equirhythmic and rhyming versions too.
You are really pushing me down a perilious path :)

A person who has coped with Yanka's texts shouldn't be so timid. :) Leila's lyrics are much more transparent, though, I'd say, rather whimsical. Right that's needed for a whimsical chatterbox. :D

petit élève wrote:

But yes, she obviously studied her classics.
She manages to put a broad variety of registers to good use, including a few swearwords in strategic spots without even sounding common or vulgar. That makes her metaphors all the more vivid and expressive.
That's a rare talent indeed, the trademark of the very best, like Brassens or Brel.

She's cute-n-smart, yeah. It's obvious even to non-French with a mediocre level of the language.

GavinGavin
   Mon, 25/09/2017 - 11:47

Cuckolders made me hesitate - the ones doing the cuckolding rather than the victims but I see that you're aiming for the rhyme

You've got the dreaded double negative again in "There won't be no happy endings."
Could be allowed - it is said a lot in casual speech but I think she's too smart for that.
There won't be any happy endings / There'll be no happy endings.

One R in buried.
You'd think you'd need to be buried - strictly speaking (agreement)

This sure is "such" intimate stuff - "much" sounds odd

Otherwise - a triumph! :-)

BratBrat    Mon, 25/09/2017 - 10:27
Gavier wrote:

You've got the dreaded double negative again in "There won't be no happy endings."

"We don't need no education" (C) :D

GavinGavin
   Mon, 25/09/2017 - 10:28

Well indeed! :)

GavinGavin
   Mon, 25/09/2017 - 11:31

Yep that's good. :-)

Yes, someone tell me what came...next - would be better actually. I think fits better too - it nearly rhymes.

Or maybe "Can someone tell me.." c'est comme tu veux. :-)

GavinGavin
   Mon, 25/09/2017 - 12:58

Oh yes - it changes the rhyming scheme doesn't it?
With next though it works as lines 1/3 - 2/4 - sort of.

After is fine though - it's just not as usual. :-)

BratBrat    Mon, 25/09/2017 - 12:50
petit élève wrote:

Mmm...yes, but putting "next" instead of "after" would ruin the rhyme with "lovers", wouldn't it?

Maybe it can be

Can someone tell me what ensued
for these two ball lovers' pursuit
?

BratBrat    Mon, 25/09/2017 - 14:00

Well, I think, "pursuit" taken in its meaning of either amorous activity or any other kind of hobby, for instance, does really make sense. Imagine, what would they do after the accordion stopped playing? Go to bed? Go to altar? Invent another activity to spend their time?
Of course, it's only my humbliest opinion. ;)

BratBrat    Mon, 25/09/2017 - 14:06
petit élève wrote:

OK, but that's a rather far-fetched use of "pursuit".

Really? I thought in love deals "pursuit" means exactly what I mentioned... Shame on me if it isn't this way... :(

GavinGavin
   Mon, 25/09/2017 - 14:24

I see what you're getting at and it can be used that way but the sentence "These lovers' pursuit" makes no sense.
"These lovers pursued" (These pursued lovers) as in the sense that they are been pursued
or "This lover's pursuit" - something that lovers do.

But neither of these fit the meaning here. Trust a native on this! :)

BratBrat    Mon, 25/09/2017 - 15:17

Thanx! BTW, did you mean that "pursuit" can refer only to a single person?

GavinGavin
   Mon, 25/09/2017 - 15:23

Not exactly -
*these* lovers' *pursuits
*this* lover's *pursuit*

Although..yes it can be the single pursuit of the two lovers as you've written it. It's not ungrammatical just rather alien sounding to a native.

BratBrat    Mon, 25/09/2017 - 15:44

Thanx! I'll mark it well. ;)

BratBrat    Mon, 25/09/2017 - 11:18

It's better to say "Some can tell me". Is it close in meaning to the French one?

GavinGavin
   Mon, 25/09/2017 - 11:29

That's the literal meaning but it's really a request - so the imperative is better.

It's like saying "can someone tell me (please).

BratBrat    Mon, 25/09/2017 - 13:22

Si on avait le même facteur
Is it a pun? I think, it is; I've already found an appropriate Russian adaptation. Don't you disappoint me since that... :)

GavinGavin
   Mon, 25/09/2017 - 14:57

Although - there is a bit of a play is there not?
Facteur = postman but also a maker, a fabricator (of certain specific things maybe)

Sounds good anyway! :-)

BratBrat    Mon, 25/09/2017 - 15:18

And does it have any connection to "factor"?

BratBrat    Mon, 25/09/2017 - 16:37

Since that it becomes more and more interesting. If the same factor lay in our equations, they could be reduced to a common denominator.

BratBrat    Mon, 25/09/2017 - 17:08

Thanx, it was really helpful. It will be also useful to find out whether the list of meanings is arranged in the descending or in the ascending order of their frequency count (a,b,c). "Postman" there is lying third, as well as in my dictionary. ;) Google tells that "factor" is the most common translation for both English and Russian, but it's too shitful to be trusted on...

GavinGavin
   Mon, 25/09/2017 - 15:18

Thought it might be a bit of a stretch! :)

BratBrat    Mon, 25/09/2017 - 15:32

The vocabulary suggests too many translations for "facteur", in Russian "фактор" goes first.

BratBrat    Mon, 25/09/2017 - 15:34

"Postman" is only the third. :D

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