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- M'as-tu connu marchand d'journaux à Barbès et sous le Métro Pour insister vers l'Institut il me faudrait de la vertu, mes romans n'ont ni rang ni ronds et je n'ai pas de caractère. - M'as-tu connu marchand d'marrons au coin de la rue Coquillère? tablier rendu, l'autre est vert. - M'as-tu connu marchand d'tickets balayeur de W.-C. je le dis sans fiel ni malice aide à la foire au Pain d'Épice défenseur au juge de Paix officier, comme on dit office au Richelieu et à la Paix.
Text Authorship:
- by Max Jacob (1876 - 1944), "Vous n'écrivez plus ?", written 1930, appears in Rivage, recueilli dans Ballades, Paris, Édition "Les Cahiers libres", first published 1931 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Vous n'écrivez plus?", FP 157 no. 2 (1954), published 1954 [ medium voice and piano ], from Parisiana, no. 2, Éd. Salabert [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Ja no escrius més?", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Laura Stanfield Prichard) , "Don’t you write anymore?", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 86
- Did’ya know me: newsie Along [Boulevard] Barbès and in the Metro To keep insisting for a position at the Institut [de France] I would’ve needed more virtue, My novels are neither reviewed nor lucrative and I lack character. - Did’ya know me: chesnut-seller on the corner of Coquillère Street? I turned in my apron, the other guy was green with envy. - Did’ya know me: ticket-seller toilet-sweeper I say this without bile or malice carny at the Gingerbread Fair defendant before the magistrate an official, in the so-called office9 at the Richelieu and the Café de la Paix.
Translator's notes
The title question is addressed ironically to a failed writer.
Line 1-5: literally “neither rows/ranks nor circles”
Line 2-3: mad?
Line 3-4 - Gingerbread Fair - The largest traveling fair in Europe, now called the Foire du Trône.
Line 3-6: This “office” is the scullery attached to the famous Café de la Paix restaurant. His job as “official” is that of dishwasher. This public recital of professional failure is typical of the defiance and bravado typical of popular French chanson.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2019 by Laura Stanfield Prichard, (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.
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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Max Jacob (1876 - 1944), "Vous n'écrivez plus ?", written 1930, appears in Rivage, recueilli dans Ballades, Paris, Édition "Les Cahiers libres", first published 1931
This text was added to the website: 2019-12-03
Line count: 16
Word count: 97