Our superb French language teacher, Arlette Nelson, has been introducing us to French songs in an effort to get us to translate as well as improve our vocabularies. Well and good.
What is not so good as far as neighboring ears are concerned, are our efforts to sing-along with such as Edith Piaf (pronounced Eeedit) or Jaques Brel, both mainstays of the French music appreciation crowd.
Last week we did a job on Jackque Brel's classic "Ne me quitte pas" or "Don't leave me." But: wiser more duplicitous heads have translated that for the English-speaking audience as "If you go away."
This is something you have to watch out for if you are going to listen to French songs with an English translation. "Don't leave me" is considered "romantic" by French listeners and it catapults along with all of the dreadful things that would happen; memories of good things and promises by the singer to make the recipient a queen where love will reign.
Okay, all well and good. Regret, begging (always a favorite of women all over the world) but it ends with the singer's desire to "be the shadow of your shadow" "your hand" and the very last line is "the shadow of your dog"! I think this is carrying groveling just a little bit too far.
I can hardly wait to see what we will be singing today. I looked up a bouncy little pop song that was The Rage in France when I was first there in 1974 called Les Voisines (The Neighbors.) A sample lyric: I curse the technician among whom the Venetian blinds cut...(off interesting bits of anatomy.)
"I always preferred the neighbors to the neighbors which dry their underwear/dainties on their balcony."
Ah, France, you old romantic you.
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