The songs of Georges Brassens with English translation

This is a neat and musical song on Brassens’ familiar themes. He tells how respectable parents hand over their daughters in marriage to the filthy rich because their overriding concern is their future comfort and security. The result is marriages that are routine, loveless and set until death. In contrast is the girl who loves a man for what he is and not for what has. She is a free spirit, whose life is full of new experiences as she gives her love when and only when she pleases.


Les Croquants
Les croquants(1) vont en ville, à cheval sur leurs sous,
The rich sods go to town, riding their moneybags
Acheter des pucelle' aux saintes bonnes gens,
To buy virgins from god-fearing proper folk
Les croquants leur mett'nt à prix d'argent(2)
The rich sods get at great expense
La main dessus,(3) la main dessous..(4.).
Their hands on them, their hands under.

Mais la chair de Lisa, la chair fraîch' de Lison
But the flesh of Lisa, the cool flesh of Lison,
(que les culs cousus d'or se fass'nt une raison !)
(Let the swine stuffed with money face up to the truth)
C'est pour la bouch' du premier venu
Is for the mouth of the first man she meets
Qui a les yeux tendre' et les mains nues…
Whose hands are empty and whose eyes speak love..

Les croquants, ça les attriste, ça
The rich sods, it depresses them, it
Les étonne, les étonne,
Astounds them, astounds them
Qu'une fille, une fill' bell' comm' ça,
That a girl, a pretty girl like that
S'abandonne, s'abandonne
Should yield herself, should yield herself
Au premier ostrogoth(7) venu...
To the first dropout she meets.
Les croquants, ça tombe des nues
The rich sods can’t believe their eyes.

Les fill's de bonnes moeurs, les fill's de bonne vie,
The girls who act nicely, the girls who live nice lives,
Qui' ont vendu leur fleurette(9) à la foire à l'encan,(10)
Who put their flowerlet on sale at public auction
Vont s' vautrer dans la couch' des croquants,
Go and sprawl themselves in the rich sods’ beds
Quand les croquants en ont envie...
Whenever rich sods feel the urge…
Mais la chair de Lisa, la chair fraîch' de Lison
But the flesh of Lisa, the cool flesh of Lison
(que les culs cousus d'or se fass'nt une raison !)
(Let the swine stuffed with money face up to the truth)
N'a jamais accordé ses faveurs
Has never given of her favours
À contre-sous, à contrecoeur...
‘gainst money –gainst her wishes

Les croquants, ça les attriste, ça
The rich sods, it depresses them, it
Les étonne, les étonne,
Astounds them, astounds them
Qu'une fille, une fill' bell' comm' ça,
That a girl, a pretty girl like that
S'abandonne, s'abandonne
Should yield herself, should yield herself
Au premier ostrogoth venu...
To the first dropout she meets..
Les croquants, ça tombe des nues
The rich sods can’t believe their eyes.

Les fill's de bonne vie ont le coeur consistant
The good-living girls have a heart that’s consistant
Et la fleur(11) qu'on y trouve est garantie longtemps,
And the flower found within’s guaranteed to last,
Comm' les fleurs en papier des chapeaux,
Like the paper flowers upon the hats
Les fleurs en pierre des tombeaux...
The stone flowers upon the tombs…
Mais le coeur de Lisa, le grand coeur de Lison
But the heart of Lisa, the great heart of Lison
Aime faire peau neuve(11) avec chaque saison
Likes to make a new start with every season
Jamais deux fois la même couleur,
Never twice over the same colour
Jamais deux fois la même fleur...
Never twice over the same flower

Les croquants, ça les attriste, ça
The rich sods, it depresses them, it
Les étonne, les étonne,
Astounds them, astounds them
Qu'une fille, une fill' bell' comm' ça,
That a girl, a pretty girl like that
S'abandonne, s'abandonne
Should yield herself, should yield herself
Au premier ostrogoth venu...
To the first dropout she meets..
Les croquants, ça tombe des nues
The rich sods can’t believe their eyes.
1955 - Chanson pour l'auvergnat

TRANSLATION COMMENTS
1) Les croquants – The French dictionary, Le Petit Robert, tells us that the word « croquants » was given to peasants who rose in revolt in the reigns of Henri IV and Louis XIII. Robert goes on to tell us that afterwards the word was used simply to mean a peasant, although it is is often used as a pejorative to mean “thief” or “Skinflint”. Brassens’ croquants have too much money for these descriptions to apply. In this poem, when he uses this pejorative, he is thinking of ignorant men enjoying the power of their wealth.

2) A prix d'argent - acheter qch à prix d’or means to pay a (small) fortune for something.(Collins-Robert)

3) La main dessus - "mettre la main sur" means to take possession of to seize hold of.(Robert)

4) La main "dessous" – In the second part of the antithesis is Brassens being rude, suggesting that these objectionable men of money would also put their hands up the girls’ skirts.

5) cousus d'or – cousu is the past participle of coudre to sew. “être (tout) cousu d’or means to be rolling in money.

6) se fass'nt une raison = se faire une raison de qch.means to accept sth./ to put up with sth. (Collins-Robert)

7) ostrogoth(7) = In history the Ostrogoths were the Goths who came from the East. The word has cometo be used to describe a person who is ill-educated,, ignorant, boorish, eccentric. None of these words fit the man that brassens intends to describe. Instead, in this poem, the term represents the person that the anarchistic Brassens admired- a spontaneous person standing apart from the false values of conventional society and indifferent to wealth and personal possessions.

8) tombe des nues – Idioms using these words refer to a state of surprise and incredulity. “Je suis tombé des nues” means you could have knocked me down with a feather

9) La fleurette – Little flower. Brassens uses it as a symbol for virginity

10) à l'encan, ==vendre à l’encan-to sell at auction. (Larousse). (Of course the most common translation for “the auction” is « La vente aux enchères »)

11) la fleur – The flowerlet of the young girl, mentioned earlier, has now matured into a full flower.

12) faire peau neuve = to find a new image - make a new start


Click here to go back to the Index of my Brassens selection

Labels: Love and marriage