The songs of Georges Brassens with English translation

Explicit lines in this poem make it suitable only for adult readers. After long hesitation, I include it because I see in the song true Brassens qualities and genuine Brassens fun –as can be seen from the audience reaction in the video.
This poem describes a dysfunctional relationship where the girl while enjoying passionate and adventurous lovemaking, spoils her lover’s experience by insisting on elements of middle class gentility and by merging her sexual ecstasy with the religious ecstasy it aroused in her.


georges Brassens - misogynie a part
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Misogynie à part

Misogynie à part, le sage avait raison :
Misogyny apart, the wise man was quite right
Il y a les emmerdantes,(1) on en trouve à foison,
There are enmerdant girls, you find them in plenty
En foule elles se pressent,
In great throngs, they come at you,
Il y a les emmerdeuses(1), un peu plus raffinées,
There are enmerdous girls, a little more refined
Et puis, très nettement au-dessus du panier,
And then very clearly, at the top of the heap
Y a les emmerderesses(1).
There are girl enmerderesses.

La mienne, à elle seule, sur tout's surenchérit,
Mine stands out alone, outclasses the whole lot
Ell' relève à la fois des trois catégories,
She ticks at the same time all three categories
Véritable prodige,
Veritable prodigy
Emmerdante, emmerdeuse, emmerderesse itou,
Enmerdant, enmerdous, enmerderesse alike.
Elle passe, ell' dépasse, elle surpasse tout,
She goes further, outstrips, she surpasses them all,
Ell' m'emmerde, vous dis-je.
She enmerds me, I tell you.

Mon dieu, pardonnez-moi ces propos bien amers,
Oh god, pray pardon me these very bitter words
Ell' m'emmerde, ell' m'emmerde, ell' m'emmerde, ell' m'emmer-
She enmerds me, she enmerds me, she enmerds me
De, elle abuse, elle attige.
She goes quite wrong, goes too far.
Ell' m'emmerde et j' regrett' mes bell's amours avec
She enmerds me and I regret my fine amours spent with
La p'tite Enfant d' Marie (3) que m'a soufflée l'évêque,
The young child of Mary, the bishop pinched from me.
Ell' m'emmerde, vous dis-je.
She enmerds me, I tell you

Ell' m'emmerde, ell' m'emmerde, et m'oblige à me cu-
She enmerds, she enmerds, and forces me to clean
Rer les ongles avant de confirmer son cul,
Up my nails before confirming her rear.
Or, c'est pas Callipyge(4).
Now she is no Callipyge
Et la charité seul' pouss' ma main résignée
And charity alone drives my resign-ed hand
Vers ce cul rabat-joie, conique, renfrogné,
To this joyless bottom, cone-shaped, sad looking
Ell' m'emmerde, vous dis-je.
She enmerds me I tell you.

Ell' m'emmerde, ell' m'emmerde, je le répète et quand
She enmerds me, she enmerds me, I repeat it and when
Ell' me tape sur le ventre, elle garde ses gants,
She bangs on my stomach, she won’t take off her gloves
Et ça me désoblige.
And this causes me offence.
Outre que ça dénote un grand manque de tact,
Besides this displaying a great lack of tact,
Ça n' favorise pas tellement le contact,
That in no way favours any sense of contact.
Ell' m'emmerde, vous dis-je.

Ell' m'emmerde, ell' m'emmerd' , quand je tombe à genoux
She enmerds, she enmerds, when I fall to my knees
Pour certain's dévotions qui sont bien de chez nous
For certain devotions that are OK with the French
Et qui donn'nt le vertige,
And which bring on vertigo
Croyant l'heure venue de chanter le Credo,
Believing the time come for singing of the creed
Elle m'ouvre tout grand son missel sur le dos,
She flings open out wide her missel on my back
Ell' m'emmerde, vous dis-je.
She enmerds me, I tell you

Ell' m'emmerde, ell' m'emmerde, à la fornication
She enmerds me, she enmerds me during fornication
Ell' s'emmerde, ell' s'emmerde avec ostentation, (5)
She enmerds me she enmerds me with ostentation
Ell' s'emmerde, vous dis-je
She enmerds me, I tell you.
Au lieu de s'écrier : "Encore ! hardi ! hardi !"
Instead of crying out : « Once more ! Go on! Go on!
Ell' déclam' du Claudel (6) ! du Claudel, j'ai bien dit,
She declaims from Claudel ! From Claudel you heard right
Alors ça, ça me fige
Well then that - that stops me dead.

Ell' m'emmerde, ell' m'emmerd', j'admets que ce Claudel
She enmerds me, she enmerds me, I admit that this Claudel
Soit un homm' de génie, un poète immortel,
Is a man of genius, a poet immortal
J' reconnais son prestige,
I acknowledge his prestige
Mais qu'on aille chercher dedans son œuvre pie,
But that one goes seeking within his wordy tomes(7)
Un aphrodisiaque, non, ça, c'est d' l'utopie!(8)
An aphrodisiac, no that’s pure Utopia
Ell' m'emmerde, vous dis-je.
She enmerds me, I tell you.

Georges Brassens
1969 - La religieuse

COMMENTS ABOUT THE TRANSLATION.

(1) emmerdantes, emmerdeuses, emmerderesses - These words and the idea behind them come from Paul Valéry (1871-1945) the famous poet, critic and essayist. Like Brassens, Valéry was born in Sètes and like Brassens is buried there – but not in the same cemetery. Brassens talks about him in another poem on this website – see Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète - .
Valéry is quoted as saying: « Il y a trois sortes de femmes: les emmerdeuses, les emmerdantes... et les emmerderesses ». My Collins dictionary lists the verb « emmerder » to badly annoy/ to bug someone. It lists “emmerdant”, the participle used as an adjective, to translate the word “annoying” with pejorative force suggesting various English oaths. The dictionary also shows this adjective forming a noun in “quel emmerdant!” = what a bloody nuisance. However there is a real noun form “emmerdement” and the exclamation “quel emmerdement!” also means “what a bloody nuisance”. For a person who is an absolute nuisance, Collins gives the word “un emmerdeur” with the feminine form “une emmerdeuse”. Collins does not give the word “emmerderesse », which Valéry seems to have invented himself by analogy with other words made feminine with the suffix “esse” e.g. “pécheur”/ “pécheresse” = sinner.
All these words are based on the word “merde” which means “s**t”. Although this word is used more freely in French and has lost some of the shock of the English translation, its basic meaning still applies.
On translating this poem, I tried to use the words “annoy” “irritate” “exasperate”, but found them very deficient in meaning. In desperation, I have imitated my colleagues in sociology and invented my own code word:
To enmerd = to drive some-one to desperation by imposing on them a load of pointless, demeaning rubbish (merde)

2) Misogynie à part – Who is the misogynist? Paul Valéry seems to be saying that all women are guilty of emmerdement, which is a very sweeping condemnation of the female sex. This is obviously a misogynistic remark. I feel that Brassens shows by his choice of title that he recognised the misogyny of Valéry’s sentiments, but, all the same, he was glad to use Valéry’s terminology as a springboard for this provocative song.

3) La p'tite Enfant d' Marie – The 1930s saw the growth of political youth movements. In the Soviet Union, there were the pioneers. In Germany, there was the Hitler Youth. The Catholic Church formed a youth movement for boys, called « Les Croisés » and for girls called “Les Enfants de Marie” aimed particularly against Communist atheism which had growing support among the left-wing in France. This membership gives an expectation of strict sexual morals.

4) Vénus callipyge - The statue of the Venus Kallipygos is now in the Royal Museum in Naples. The worship of this Venus had been widespread in Ancient Greece and then had spread to Italy. The word Kallipygos is formed by an adjective, Κάλλος, which means beautiful and a noun πυγὴ, which means bum.

5) Ell' m'emmerde, ell' m'emmerde - This word, emphatic in itself, is made even more emphatic by its repetition, six times in three lines. However, some of the humour comes from the sense that this is a pretend indignation, while describing their mutual pleasure. Also the style of their lovemaking seems to be an established routine to which each returned willingly. No doubt, Brassens was fascinated and amused by his quirky young partner. The vehemence of his overstatement is comic as we see from the reaction of singer and audience.

6) Ell' déclam' du Claudel - Paul Claudel (1868 -1955) was a very prominent man of letters, who produced an incredible output of poems, plays, travel books, literary criticism and more. His plays were extremely long- one lasting eleven hours. In his writings, he expressed his very strong faith in Roman Catholicism. Like many influential French Catholics, he had been a strong supporter of the ideals of the collaborationist Vichy government of General Pétain, to whom he addressed a eulogical poem. This background served to limit Claudel’s appeal to those on the political left, such as Brassens.
The article about Claudel in Wikipedia, has a sentence which seems relevant to this poem. We read there that Claudel used “scenes of passionate, obsessive human love to convey with great power God's infinite love for humanity”. Above the physical detail of lovemaking, which Brassens has described in his poem, most people are probably aware of a spiritual dimension- although not necessarily with religious connotations. In the play Les Miserables, Jean Valjean says "to love another person is to see the face of God.". There is another quotation- also from Victor Hugo I think- that when two people make love, God is always present at that altar.
Perhaps the unconventional, strong-minded young girl gets the better in this poem! At the start we had expectations that she would have conformist, life-denying inhibitions but instead she emerges as an individualist, seeking her own answers. Despite his over-loud protestations against his partner, Brassens has given us another example of one of life’s eccentrics, so dear to him.

Labels: A song about passion and hang-ups that got banned