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The little flute player

The little flute player
managed the court music1.
To thank him for his songs
the king offered him a coat of arms:
"I don't want to be a noble"
the music-maker answered,
"with a coat of arms thrown in2
my style3 would get inflated4,
people would say, all over the country,
'The flute-player has betrayed us',
 
"And my poor little steeple
would seem not high enough for me,
I wouldn't bend the knee any more
before our good homely God,
for my grand soul I would need
all the saints of Notre-Dame
with a bishop thrown in,
my style would get inflated,
people would say, all over the country,
'The flute-player has betrayed us',
 
"And the room where I was born
would be a dismal place for me to be in,
I would get rid of my third-rate bed
and get a four-poster with a canopy,
I'd swap my cottage
for a country seat,
with a manor thrown in
my style would get inflated,
people would say, all over the country,
'The flute-player has betrayed us',
 
"I'll be ashamed of my blood-line,
of the ancestors from whom I descend,
I'll be seen turning my nose up about
the family branch to which I belong5,
I would want a magnificent
family tree,
with blue bood thrown in,
my style would get inflated,
people would say, all over the country,
'The flute-player has betrayed us',
 
"I would no longer want to marry
my betrothed, my fiancée,
I wouldn't give my name
to some kind of Ninon6,
for a concubine or a spouse7 I would need
the daughter of a Spanish grandee,
with a princess thrown in
my style would get inflated,
people would say, all over the country,
'The flute-player has betrayed us'."
 
The little flute player
bowed to the court,
with no coat of arms, without title deeds,
without glory, he set off
towards his steeple, his cottage,
his family and his betrothed...
No-one in the country says
"The flute player has betrayed us",
And let God recognise as his own
the decent little flute player.
 
  • 1. lit: the music at the castle
  • 2. maybe a pun on "in the correct key" - key in the musical sense; but "à la clé" commonly means "in addition to the rest", "thrown in", "into the bargain"
  • 3. lit:"my La": how he gets everyone tuned up
  • 4. ie big-headed, above himself
  • 5. lit: from which I am descended
  • 6. non-U familiar name, usually from Ninette
  • 7. compagnon means one or the other
Testi originali

Le petit joueur de fluteau

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Idioms from "Le petit joueur de ..."
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