Les passantes - Video Lyrics Translation

Click here to go to the full list of my selection of Brassens songs -  In alphabetical order

This song is ranked among the best-loved songs of  Georges Brassens
He has put to music a melancholic poem of Antoine Pol.  The poet reviews the attractive women who have passed briefly in and out of his life, because he did know how to take the opportunity for romance.  In his later lonely years, he is left with no other consolation than these fleeting pictures in his memory.

Les Passantes

Je veux dédier ce poème A toutes les femmes qu'on aime Pendant quelques instants secrets A celles qu'on connait à peine Qu'un destin différent entraîne Et qu'on ne retrouve jamais A celle qu'on voit apparaître Une seconde à sa fenêtre Et qui, preste, s'évanouit Mais dont la svelte silhouette Est si gracieuse et fluette Qu'on en demeure épanoui . A la fine et souple valseuse Qui vous sembla triste et nerveuse Par une nuit de carnaval Qui voulut rester inconnue Et qui n'est jamais revenue Tournoyer dans un autre bal A la compagne de voyage Dont les yeux, charmant paysage Font paraître court le chemin Qu'on est seul, peut-être, à comprendre Et qu'on laisse pourtant descendre Sans avoir effleuré sa main A celles qui sont déjà prises Et qui, vivant des heures grises Près d'un être trop différent (1) Vous ont, inutile folie, Laissé voir la mélancolie D'un avenir désespérant Chères images aperçues Espérances d'un jour déçues Vous serez dans l'oubli demain Pour peu que le bonheur survienne Il est rare qu'on se souvienne Des épisodes du chemin Mais si l'on a manqué sa vie On songe avec un peu d'envie A tous ces bonheurs entrevus Aux baisers qu'on n'osa pas prendre Aux cœurs qui doivent vous attendre Aux yeux qu'on n'a jamais revus Alors, aux soirs de lassitude Tout en peuplant sa solitude Des fantômes du souvenir On pleure les lèvres absentes De toutes ces belles passantes Que l'on n'a pas su retenir

I wish to dedicate this poem To all of the women that one loves For just a few secret moments To those whom you scarcely  know Whom a different fate bears away And whom you see never again. To the one whom you saw appear For a brief second at her window And who, straightway, is lost from sight And yet whose slender silhouette Is so graceful and alluring You stay there tingling with her glow. The lithe girl of a stylish waltz Who to you seemed nervous and sad On that one night of  Carnival. Who wished to remain a stranger And who never came back to join In the whirl of another ball. To the girl who shared your journey, Whose eyes, charm to the spectator, Make the route travelled seem short  Whom just you p'rhaps could understand And yet whom you allow to go off Without the mere touch of her hand. To those women already taken Who, living long and dull hours With a person too different Have let you see,  pointless folly. The depth of the melancholy Of a future deprived of hope. Dear images only half seen Disappointed hopes of just one day You’ll be quite forgotten the next  If the good times should come along. It is rare that one remembers Trivial events on life’s way. But if you have missed out on life You ponder with tinges of envy, All those moments of bliss you glimpsed The kisses you did not dare take The hearts which must be left waiting The eyes that were not seen again. And so, on wearisome evenings, While peopling your loneliness With the phantoms of  memory One weeps for lips, sadly absent, Of all those beaut’ful passers-by Whom you knew not how to keep hold.

This song is Georges Brassens' setting of the poem by Antoine Pol

(1)  Brassens tells us that when he wrote this verse, he had in his thoughts his life-long partner Joha Heiman, who was enduring a loveless marriage when he first met her.

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We probably all have brief “might have been” relationships that stay with us for all time. The English poet, Thomas Hardy had a pretty redhead called Elizabeth Brown.

To Lizbie Browne

1 Dear Lizbie Browne, Where are you now? In sun, in rain? — Or is your brow Past joy, past pain, Dear Lizbie Browne?	2 Sweet Lizbie Browne How you could smile, How you could sing! — How archly wile In glance-giving, Sweet Lizbie Browne!	3 And Lizbie Browne, Who else had hair Bay-red as yours, Or flesh so fair Bred out of doors, Sweet Lizbie Browne?
4 When, Lizbie Browne, You had just begun To be endeared By stealth to one, You disappeared, My Lizbie Browne!	5 Ay, Lizbie Browne, So swift your life, And mine so slow, You were a wife Ere I could show Love, Lizbie Browne.	6 Still, Lizbie Browne, You won, they said, The best of men When you were wed.... Where went you then, O Lizbie Browne?
7 Dear Lizbie Browne, I should have thought, "Girls ripen fast," And coaxed and caught You ere you passed, Dear Lizbie Browne!	8 But, Lizbie Browne, I let you slip; Shaped not a sign; Touched never your lip With lip of mine, Lost Lizbie Browne!	9 So, Lizbie Browne, When on a day Men speak of me As not, you'll say, "And who was he?" — Yes, Lizbie Browne!

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Comment:Oxzen said...

I've been looking for a good translation of "Les Passantes" for years, so many thanks for this, David. Very well laid out and displayed. Particularly liked the way you incorporated the excellent video. Have you seen the version sung by Francis Cabrel?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C27QQXWle6c

It has some nice bluesy guitar work and a fantastic blues harmonica solo in the middle. 5 minutes of real bliss.
Not surprising that a fellow Libran should have such a love of this beautiful piece of work, and of Brassens generally.

11 April 2008 at 15:03 

Les Passantes is beautiful in Italian as well: (But the Italian translation is very free!