Avec élégance - traduction en anglais

Jacques Brel

Avec élégance

5 traductions

Paroles originales

Traduction

Avec élégance

Elegantly

Almost feeling great as the Romans

But at the Fall of their empire

Digging in one's memory with two hands

Being only speaking to one's silence

And

Not wanting to be loved anymore

For you've not being esteemed enough

Being desperate

But still elegant

Feeling closer to distress

Than when your body was thin

Reading in gorgeous women's eyes

That after 50, you should leave Paris*

And

Burning your dying youth

But acting as though you didn't need to

Being desperate

But still elegant

Crawling some pubs

In each of which you're the oldest person

Giving heaps of tips

To some silent barmen

And

Nibbling usual meals

With excited old biddies

Being desperate

But still elegant

Being aware that you've always been timorous

Being aware of all your cowardice

Being able to live unhappily

Being ready not to forgive yourself anymore

And

Not desiring anything anymore

But instead listening to your heart dancing

Being desperate

But with hope

Vous pouvez remercier l’auteur·e en appuyant sur ce bouton

Détails du morceau

Détails de la traduction

Feel to point out errors or suggest improvements in any of my translations.

maëlstrom

soumis le 16 Jan 2011 - 13:44

Commentaires de l’auteur·e :

* Four very strange lines. This part was a guess.

Commentaires 3

snorio

13 fév 2011, 10:59

francaise au coeur

20 sep 2012, 22:58

Nice translation. The very last line espérance means hope, so the last lines should be
To be desperate
But with hope.

serin

15 jui 2018, 04:27

In regard to 'Que cinquante ans c'est la province':

Here I'm thinking of Brel's line from 'Les Vieux' (Old People), where he says 'Que l’on vive à Paris on vit tous en province quand on vit trop longtemps' ('Even if we live in Paris, we all live in the country when we live too long'), meaning you get increasingly irrelevant and disenfranchised.

Consider translating 'Que cinquante ans c'est la province' as 'After fifty, you might as well be in the countryside' or something similar.

*I just found a very similar comment by the author of translation 2 of this song, but I'm leaving mine here anyway in case it helps anyone.

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