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  • Alain Souchon

    Rive gauche → English translation

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Left bank

I recall the songs of Prévert's
and of all those who whisper Verlaine1
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.
 
However tender the night might be,
it passes.
Oh my Zelda, Montparnasse is dead and gone.
Miles Davis tuning on his Gréco2
As all the Morissons3 on their Nico4.
 
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
Original lyrics

Rive gauche

Click to see the original lyrics (French)

Please help to translate "Rive gauche"
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Comments
Torpedo23Torpedo23    Thu, 04/06/2020 - 05:11
5

A very nice translation! Souchon's texts are always quite hard to grasp, and even harder to translate... Thank you (:

Hubert ClolusHubert Clolus    Sun, 23/10/2022 - 07:43

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.