The songs of Georges Brassens with English translation

In this simple poem, Brassens describes the hysteria and malice, which is aroused in a parish of traditional believers, when they suspect that their priest, at Easter, has accepted a tiny token of sexual affection from a person unknown. Brassens tells the tale, largely suppressing his personal reaction until his last line of inarticulate disbelief.

Brassens la marguerite
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LA MARGUERITE
La petite
The so tiny
Marguerite
Daisy flower
Est tombée,
Fell down
Singulière,
Strange to say
Du bréviaire
From The breviary
De l'abbé
Of the priest.

Trois pétales
Three petals
De scandale
Of scandal
Sur l'autel,
On the altar
Indiscrète
An indiscreet
Pâquerette,
Easter flower
D'où vient-elle ?
Whence comes it ?


Dans l'enceinte
In the confines
Sacro-sainte,
Sacrosanct
Quel émoi
What a fuss !
Quelle affaire,
What an outrage,
Oui, ma chère,
Yes my dear
Croyez-moi !
Believe me.

La frivole
The frivolous
Fleur qui vole,
Flower in flight
Arrive en
Arrives as
Contrebande
Contraband
Des plat's-bandes
From the flower beds
Du couvent.
Of the convent.

Notre Père
Our father
Qui, j'espère,
Who I hope
Êt's aux cieux,
Art in heaven
N'ayez cure
Pay no regard
Des murmures
To the whispers
Malicieux,
Of mischief

La légère
The slight
Fleur, peuchère !
Flower, God's truth !
Ne vient pas
Does not come
De nonnettes,(1)
From little nuns
De cornettes
In cornets
En sabbat.
At a Black Sabbath.

Sachez, diantre !
Know – devil take me!
Qu'un jour, entre
That, one day between
Deux Ave,
Hail Marys,
Sur la Pierre
On the footstone
D'un calvaire
Of a wayside cross
Il l'a trouvée,
He found it.

Et l'a mise,
And he put it
Chose admise
A thing allowed
Par le ciel,
By heaven
Sans ambages,
Without ado
Dans les pages
In the pages
Du missel.
Of the missal.

Que ces messes
Let these masses
Basses cessent,
All low cease now
Je vous prie.
I pray you
Non, le prête
No the priest
N'est pas traître
Is not a traitor
À Marie.
To Mary.

Que personne
Let nobody
Ne soupçonne,
Ever suspect
Plus jamais,
From now on
La petite
The so tiny
Marguerite,
Daisy flower.
Ah ! ça mais !*
Words fail me.
*In the three final words, Brassens indicates that he is left speechless.

Georges Brassens
1961 - Les trompettes de la renommé
TRANSLATION NOTE
(1) De nonnettes – I had never met this word and thought that Brassens had invented this diminutive. In fact, Larousse tells me that nonnette means a young nun.

COMMENTS

1) The music of this poem comes from the rhythm of two lines of four feet followed by one line of three feet. I have tried to keep to this, but have not always managed it.
2) There is a story that Brassens offered this song to Brigitte Bardot, who, it is believed, was an intimate friend. The story goes on to say that she refused because of one line. The line to which she is supposed to have objected is: Fleur, peuchère ! The word "peuchère" is an oath of southern French origin, which Collins Robert translates as "streuth!"- which makes it quite mild. Only a native speaker knows the power of an expletive and,no doubt, Brigitte Bardot found this very unladylike.

This is a relatively unimportant line and Brassens could have easily rephrased it. I would have thought that what she would have found difficult to deliver, would be the last line, where he finally expresses his despair and disbelief at the behaviour of the respectable devout in the supposedly enlightened 20th century.

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Labels: Religious prudery and intolerance