Au bois de mon cœur
michealt op 2018-01-04In the woods of my heart
- *. a. b. c. d. Clamart, Meudon, Saint-Cloud and Vincennes are communes in the suburbs of Paris. Each contains a significant chunk of woodland as well as substantial built areas. The Bois de Vincennes is about 4 miles east of Central Paris and contains Paris's largest Zoo and a lot of parkland with woodland on its south side (if my memory is working). Saint-Cloud is about 6 miles East of central Partis, and is a very posh and expensive area (about which I know nothing) which includes the Saint-Cloud racecourse. Clamart and Meudon are a pair of communes about 5 and half miles south west of central Paris, Meudon being immediately west of Clamart - the northern parts of each are built up, but there is woodland further south (and more built up area south of that), and the old Paris observatory (l'Observatoire de Meudon) is in the non-built-up area.
These four popular wooded areas are contrasted with the built-up area in central Paris around Brassens' small house with a large yard. - 1. This is not a literal translation. The courtyard is not much liked because it has Brassens in it and often his friends too; Brassens was not locally pouplar (neither were his friends); this stanza uses transferred epiphets/metaphores, a literal translation would probably be misleading
| bedankt! ❤ |  |  |
| 8 maal bedankt | ||
michealt op 2018-01-04michealt op 2018-02-13Dit betekent dat hij/zij graag correcties, suggesties etc over de vertaling ontvangt.
Als je de beide hier gebruikte talen beheerst, ben je van harte welkom om hieronder in een reactie commentaar te geven.
| 1. | Je me suis fait tout petit |
| 2. | Les passantes |
| 3. | La mauvaise réputation |
Sarasvati michealt
Vrij, 02/02/2018 - 16:19
Thanks, Pierre.
I'm not at all sure what to do with "renomé pour avoir le cœur mal famé", maybe just "known for a bad heart", but this is a 1956 or 1957 song (a disc that included it was released in 1957) and I don't think Brassens' illness was that early (of course I could easily be wrong). Maybe just say he had a bad reputation but he'd said that in different words just 5 years earlier (La mauvaise réputation). Unless I can think of something better or someone suggests a good translation I think I'll leave it as it is.
That missing "no" must have been me being sloppy.
batay
Vrij, 02/02/2018 - 14:03
If I may add my interpretation, Brassens' second verse is much simpler than some of you think it is. In a few words: he lives in a courtyard surrounded by small houses that were still common in French cities around the 50's and 60's; actually he lived in one of those small houses. Renommé means simply well known: it is well known that he has a bad reputation concerning his relationships to others. Nothing more to be deducted from Brassens' lines.
batay
Vrij, 02/02/2018 - 14:38
Poets have often said they were amazed -and amused- by the extremely complex and sophisticated ideas some critics or simple readers sometimes discern behind their plainly poetic words... Ideas that were light years away from their own minds. But evidently anyone is entitled to any kind of interpretation -even to overinterpretation :) :) :)
Cest une des trois chansons que Brassens a écrites pour le fim de René Clair La Porte des lilas, dans lequel Brassens a joué. Les autres chansons sont L'Amandier et Le Vin. La version présentée ici est celle publiée en disque, mais la version du film est aussi disponible à cette adresse : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Daw5MuVJYc
This is one of three songs that Brassens wrote for René Clair's film La Porte des lilas, in which Brassens acted. The other two songs are L'Amandier and Le Vin). The version here is the version released on disc, but the film version is also available for watching at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Daw5MuVJYc
A strange custom has been adopted by some of writing/printing 'au, au' for the word au whenever it's drawn out over two notes in this song. I don't know whether Brassens did that or not, I rather doubt it as he quite clearly sings it as a single drawn out syllable not two separate words so I haven't adopted that weird way of writing it here.