Les belles manières
Language: French (Français)
Javotte enfin, vous grandissez,
Venez, il faut que je vous gronde,
Vous ne vous donnez pas assez
Les belles manières du monde;
Refrain
Car c’est comm’ ci,
Car c’est comm’ çà,
Regardez-moi, ma fille,
C’est comm’ ci, c’est comm’ çà,
Qu’on fait honneur à sa famille.
Il faut, sans y faire semblant
Lorsque vous sortez le dimanche,
Pour qu’on vous regarde en passant,
Avoir un certain tour de hanche.
Refrain
Lorsqu’un gentilhomme viendra
Vous glisser son tendre martyre,
Vous ne répondrez rien à çà,
Mais vous lui ferez un sourire.
Refrain
Un époux je vous choisirai,
Vous direz: j’en suis bien contente;
Volontiers je me marierai…
Non pas une fois mais bien trente…
Car c’est comm’ ci,
Car c’est comm’ çà,
C’est le bon ton, ma fille,
C’est comm’ ci, c’est comm’ çà,
Qu’on fait honneur à sa famille.
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Marie-Joseph-Alexandre Déodat de Séverac (1872 - 1921), "Les belles manières", 1905, published 1907 [ medium voice and piano ], from Les vieilles chansons de France, no. 9, Éd. E. Meuriot, A. Rouart successeur [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gustave Ferrari (1872 - 1948), "Les belles manières", published 1911, copyright © 1911 [ voice and piano ], B. Schott's Söhne, Mainz [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Garrett Medlock) , "The polite manners", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Garrett Medlock
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website: 2019-01-07
Line count: 29
Word count: 139
The polite manners
Language: English after the French (Français)
Javotte at last, you are growing up,
Come [here], I must scold you,
You do not give yourself enough [of]
The polite manners of the world;
Refrain
Because it is like this,
Because it is like that,
Look at me, my daughter,
It is like this, it is like that,
That one should honor [her] family.
One must, without faking [it],
Have a certain hip size
So that one looks at you in passing
When you go out on Sundays.
Refrain
When a gentlemen is coming
To murmur to you his tender agonies,
You will not respond at all to that,
But you will make him smile.
Refrain
A husband will choose you,
You will say: I am very happy [with it];
Gladly I will marry…
Not only one time but thirty…
Because it is like this,
Because it is like that,
It is [polite], my daughter,
It is like this, it is like that,
That one should honor [her] family.
Translator's note for stanza 2 lines 2 and 4: The order of these two lines has been switched in the translation to improve comprehension.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2019 by Garrett Medlock, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2019-01-07
Line count: 29
Word count: 161
