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May 2009

Translation of Que vois-je from L’Étrange Noël de monsieur Jack

May 20, 2009

I wondered how long I should leave it before I posted another translation from L’Étrange Noël de monsieur Jack. As you can see, I decided I didn’t need to leave very much time at all. This is one of the best tracks from the film and is great for practising your French listening.

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Translation of Tu Manques by Frédéric Lerner

May 20, 2009

I received some feedback on a previous post (Jusqu’au bout – 30th March 2009) asking if I knew the chords to another Frédéric Lerner track, “Tu manques”. When I figure them out I will post them hear, but in the meantime here is the translation of the song.

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Translation of Le Petit Caillou by Amélie Les Crayons

May 19, 2009

Here’s a slow, melodic song about a pebble, a little reminiscent of Thomas Fersen’s La chauve-souris. Nothing too clever or tricky in the lyrics but quite a lot of good vocabulary that may be new.

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Translation of L’autre bout du monde by Emily Loizeau

May 17, 2009

I have loved Emily Loizeau since I saw her on an episode of TV5 Monde’s Acoustic. Not only is she captivating, but you also find yourself drawn to her cello player, Olivier Koundouno, who occasionally sings a line or two but mostly just sits there looking cool. She is another classically trained pianist. She has a French father and an English mother and often sings in English as well as several other languages.

This is the title track from her first album – L’autre bout du monde. One of my favourite tracks on the album “I’m alive” is, regrettably for this site, in English.

Unfortunately this is a very simple translation so I have struggled to find much of note to mention below…

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Translation of Perdus cette nuit by BB Brunes

May 14, 2009

Perdus cette nuit “Lost tonight” is from the album Blonde Comme Moi released in 2007.

BB Brunes are very much part of the new French rock scene. According to Le Figaro, they are « typique d’une nouvelle génération », « leur rock candide et énervé est à la fois classique et neuf » – “typical of a new generation,” their candid and edgy rock is both classic and modern”.

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Translation of Oogie Boogie Blues from L’Étrange Noël de monsieur Jack

May 9, 2009

Something a little bit different this time. In 1993, Tim Burton’s excellent Disney musical “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was released. Last night I was watching the DVD with the French soundtrack and decided to translate one of the French versions of the songs back into English. For practical and poetic reasons, there are significant differences between the French and English versions of the songs so the exercise is not altogether pointless!

In the song I have chosen “Oogie Boogie Blues”, there is some fairly advanced vocabulary, so the translation should be quite interesting for most.

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Translation of Les Lacs Du Connemara by Michel Sardou

May 7, 2009

This is the title track from the ninth album from Michel Sardou, released in 1981. I came across this song on a compilation of 1980s French songs. It starts very slowly but soon builds into a bit of a foot stomper.

One small poetic item in the translation that was tricky…

On y voit encore des hommes d’ailleurs venus chercher le repos de l’âme et pour le cœur un goût de meilleur

I’m not quite sure of this, I’ve translated something like…

You still see men from elsewhere come to find some rest for their souls and a little more warmth for their hearts

Other than that, quite a simple translation!

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Translation of Allô le monde by Pauline

May 4, 2009

This is the title track from the Pauline’s debut album Allô le monde. Pauline (Pauline Vasseur) is a young, classical trained pianist from Lens in France.

Quite unlike the previous post, this is a quite a straightforward translation.

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Translation of Miss Maggie by Renaud

May 1, 2009

This is one of the most famous French songs for people in the UK. Renaud sings the praises of all women except Margaret Thatcher of whom he thinks rather less. Renaud did record an English version of the song which is included here as a YouTube video beneath the original – it will take you a while to adjust to his accent to understand it! Naturally, his English version it’s not a direct translation because things need to be changed in order to get it to fit and rhyme where necessary.

The translation here is a more direct translation of the French – we are not slaves to poetry or cadence.

As in the previous Renaud translation, there is plenty of French slang (argot) here.

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