Rame - English translation

Alain Souchon

Rame

5 translations

Album:

Rame

Original lyrics

Translation

Rame

Oar

Paddle, not droll,

On this old Loire.1

Paddle, not droll:

It brews air, your oar.2

Heron, heron,

Good scout, up there,

There's what?

There's what elsewhere?

Wood shell, wood shell,

Good Hevea,

Float me, float me

Far from this shack.

Bathtub, bathtub,3

You lied to me;

Here, elsewhere,

it's all alike.

[Chorus] :

Oar, row, rowers, do row.

We're goin' nowhere4 in this canoe.

Up there,

Sweet dreams we sell you:5

Can you believe you will leave? Yet, can you?6

Shut up and row.

I've gone,

Water's stagnant.7

Chaumont,8

Langeais,9

Barely Amboise;10

The love, the cord,

Too tight the string,

Untie, untie,

I want to leave.

[Chorus sung as a canon] :

1. The Loire is, with a length of 1,006 kilometers, the longest river flowing entirely in France.
2. Originally: You won't get anywhere,
3. Here, understand that the author evokes the imagination of a child who, in his bathtub, with a plastic oar, invents long-distance journeys
4. ”avancer à rien”: move forward to nothing
5. "Être mené en bateau" Literally: “Be strolled in 'boat (by someone)” is a popular French expression meaning to be duped by a person, to be deceived by promises that will never be kept. Obviously, the specific use of this expression is not trivial since it perfectly suits this song, itself a metaphor of the "Sunday's navigator," with docile and joyless waterways compared here to the dreary daily routine of the average citizen.
6. Originally: You'll never be able to leave everything behind, go away...
7. "Mais l'eau est lasse" (But the water is tired). Here, the author uses a phonetic pun, knowing that in French, “est lasse” and “Hélas” (Alas) are pronounced the same way.
8. Chaumont is a French commune located in the department of Haute-Marne
9. Langeais is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in France, in the Centre-Val de Loire region
10. Amboise is a city in the Loire Valley, in central France

Song details

Translation details

For any use of my translations, please contact me
Pour toute utilisation de mes traductions, merci de me contacter via le site
Para cualquier uso de mis traducciones, Contáctame a través del sitio web
Per qualsiasi utilizzo delle mie traduzioni, Contattami attraverso il sito web
Für jegliche Verwendung meiner Übersetzungen benachrichtigen Kontaktieren Sie mich über die Website

This is a poetic translation - deviations from the meaning of the original are present (extra words, extra or omitted information, substituted concepts).