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Translation
Left bank
I recall the songs of Prévert's
and the shouts of good old stormy Ferré.
Boris Vian shall be written with a trumpet.
Left bank in Paris.
Farewell, my country
of music and poetry.
The ill-mannered merchants
who took everything from other places
come to bookstore to sell their attires.
In bookstores.
Left bank in Paris.
Oh my island, oh my country
of music and poetry,
in love with art and freedom.
It has got caught, it's been conquered.
It will die eventually, whatever they say,
and my song turns it into melancholy5.
Life is theater and memories,
still we persist in not dying,
hanging about on the banks. Come here and see,
it looks like Jane and Serge on the Pont des Arts.
Left bank in Paris,
farewell my country.
Farewell Jazz, farewell night,
a state within the state of mind6,
considered with contempt,
like Quebec by the United States,
and like us too...
Ah! The contempt...
Ah! The contempt...
- 1. The pun is on "souffleur de verre" (glass blower). A "souffleur" can also be a prompter (in a theater), but here "souffler" is meant as "whisper".
- 2. The French is a bit strange here. "sonner" can have a few different meanings, but here I suppose Souchon invents a new one, like "play music", based on "ring" (as a melody does)
- 3. Could allude both to Sterling and Jim
- 4. Besides the alliteration, the sentence could be read as "All the dead play a tune for their Nico"
- 5. Souchon invented that verb
- 6. The pun is the same in French, but I don't really get it
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Thanks Details:
User | Time ago |
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Torpedo23 | 3 years 9 months |
kochenkova | 5 years 6 months |
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Submitted by Guest on 2018-07-02
Added in reply to request by kochenkova
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Please help to translate "Rive gauche"
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3. | Le Baiser |
Comments
6.form a state apart in our state of mind.
( The Paris nights form an odd universe compared to the rest of France).
The word '' particulier'' odd, apart is lacking after état.
The link with States/ Quebec would be better.
Russia is waging a disgraceful war on Ukraine. Stand With Ukraine!
As often with Souchon, the song is pretty nice and the theme interesting, but the lyrics are a bit awkward, in my opinion.