Six French songs

Translations © by Peter Low

Song Cycle by Germaine Tailleferre (1892 - 1983)

View original-language texts alone: Six chansons françaises

1. Non, la fidélité...
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Non, la fidélité
  N'a jamais été
Qu'une imbécillité.
    J'ai quitté
  Par légèreté
  Plus d'une beauté.
Vive la nouveauté !
Mais quoi ! la probité ?
  Puérilité.
Le serment répété ?
  Style usité.
A-t-on jamais compté
  Sur un traité
    Dicté
  Par la volupté,
    Sans liberté ?
  On feint par vanité 
    D'être irrité.
  L'amant peu regretté
    Est invité :
  La femme avec gaîté, 
Bientôt s'arrange de son côté.

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by Gabriel-Charles de Lattaignant (1697 - 1779)
1. No, fidelity...
Language: English 
No, fidelity 
has never been 
anything but stupidity.
Capriciously, 
I've left 
more than one beautiful woman.
Long live novelty!
But morality, you say?  
Puerility.
Repeated vows?  
Out of fashion.
Could one ever count 
on a treatise 
inspired 
by pleasure
that omits the value of freedom?
You pretend, out of vanity, 
to be annoyed.
The un-regretted lover 
is copied by others.
The woman, for her part, gaily, quickly
makes alternative arrangements.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2017 by Peter Low, (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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Translations of titles:
"Non, la fidélité..." = "No, fidelity..."
"La légèreté" = "Frivolity"



This text was added to the website: 2017-08-11
Line count: 22
Word count: 70

Translation © by Peter Low
2. Souvent un air de vérité
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Souvent un air de vérité
Se mêle au plus grossier mensonge.
Une nuit dans l'erreur d'un songe,
Au rang des rois j'étais monté.
Je vous aimais alors et j'osais vous le dire.
Les dieux à mon réveil ne m'ont pas tout ôté :
Je n'ai perdu que mon empire.

Text Authorship:

  • by François Marie Arouet (1694 - 1778), as Voltaire, "Songe de M. de Voltaire à la princesse royale de Prusse au mois de septembre 1743 lorsqu'il était à Berlin"

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by François Marie Arouet (1694 - 1778), as Voltaire
2.
Language: English 
Often an air of truth
can be found in the crudest lie.
Last night in a deluded dream
I had risen to the rank of kings.
At that time I loved you and dared to tell you so.
When I woke, the gods didn't take it all away:
I lost only my kingdom.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2017 by Peter Low, (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 François Marie Arouet (1694 - 1778), as Voltaire, "Songe de M. de Voltaire à la princesse royale de Prusse au mois de septembre 1743 lorsqu'il était à Berlin"

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Translation of title "Souvent un air de vérité" = "Often an air of truth"


This text was added to the website: 2017-08-11
Line count: 7
Word count: 53

Translation © by Peter Low
3. Mon mari m'a diffamée
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Mon mari m'a diffamée 
Pour l'amour de mon ami, 
De la longue demeurée 
Que j'ai faite avecque lui. 
Hé! mon ami, 
En dépit de mon mari 
qui me va toujours battant, 
Je ferai pis que devant. 

Aucunes gens m'ont blamée, 
Disant que j'ai fait ami; 
La chose très fort m'agrée, 
Mon très gracieux souci. 
Hé! mon ami, 
en dépit de mon mari 
Qui ne vaut pas un grand blanc, 
Je ferai pis que devant. 

Quand je suis la nuit couchée 
Entre les bras de mon ami, 
Je deviens presque pamée 
Du plaisir que prends en lui. 
Hé! mon ami 
Plût à Dieu que mon mari 
Je ne visse de trente ans! 
Nous nous don'rions du bon temps. 

Si je perds ma renommée 
Pour l'amour de mon ami, 
Point n'en dois être blamée, 
Car il est coint et joli. 
Hé! mon ami,  
Je n'ai bonjour ni demi 
Avec ce mari méchant. 
Je ferai pis que devant.

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author ( 15th century )

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by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
3. My husband has vilified me
Language: English 
My husband has vilified me
for my love for my man friend,
citing the long stay
I made with him.
Hey, lover,
in spite of my husband
who is always beating me,
I will behave worse than before.
 
Some folk blamed me
saying I have a lover;
but the thing pleases me greatly,
it is my very gracious concern.
Hey, lover,
in spite of my husband
who is not worth a big fat nothing,
I will behave worse than before.
 
When I lie at night
in the arms of my lover,
I just about faint
with the pleasure I take in him.
Hey, lover,
would to God that I never see
my husband in the next thirty years!
We'll give each other a good time.
 
If I lose my reputation
for love of my lover,
I ought not to be blamed,
for he is pleasant and handsome
Hey, lover,
I don't get a good-day (or even half)
with this nasty husband.
I will behave worse than before.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2017 by Peter Low, (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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This text was added to the website: 2017-08-11
Line count: 32
Word count: 167

Translation © by Peter Low
4. Vrai Dieu, qui m'y confortera
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Vrai Dieu, qui m'y confortera 
Quand ce faux jaloux me tiendra 
En sa chambre seule enfermée ? 
Mon père m'a donné un vieillard 
Qui tout le jour crie : 
Hélas ! Hélas ! Hélas ! 
Et dort au long de la nuitée. 

Il me faut un vert galant 
Qui fût de l'âge de trente ans 
Et qui dormit la matinée. 
Rossignolet du bois plaisant, 
Pourquoi me va ainsi chantant, 
Puisqu'au vieillard suis mariée ? 

Ami tu sois le bienvenu ; 
Longtemps a que t'ai attendu 
Au joli bois, sous la ramée.

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author ( 15th century )

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by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
4. Who will comfort me?
Language: English 
Who, true God, will comfort me
when this false and jealous man holds me
locked up alone in his bedroom?
My father gave me an old man
who shouts the whole day long:
"Alas, alas, alas!"
and sleeps the whole night through.
 
What I need is a lusty younger man
around the age of thirty
who sleeps in the morning.
Oh nightingale of the pleasant woods,
why do you keep singing to me,
when I am married to an old man?
 
Lover, I bid you welcome;
for a long time I have waited for you
in the pretty woods, under the boughs.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2017 by Peter Low, (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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This text was added to the website: 2017-08-11
Line count: 16
Word count: 102

Translation © by Peter Low
5. On a dit mal de mon ami
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
On a dit mal de mon ami, 
Dont j'ai le coeur bien marri, 
Qu'ont-ils affaire quel il soit, 
ou qu'il soit beau ou qu'il soit laid, 
Quand je lui plais et qu'il me plait ? 

Un médisant ne veut onc bien : 
Quand le cas ne lui touche en rien, 
Pourquoi va-t-il médire ? 
Il fait vivre en martyre 
Ceux qui ne lui demandent rien. 

Quand j'ai tout bien considéré, 
Femme n'est de quoi n'est parlé. 
Voilà ce qui m'avance 
De prendre ma plaisance. 
Aussi dit-on bien que je l'ai. 

Plût or à Dieu qu'il fut ici 
Celui que j'ai pris et choisi, 
Puisqu'on en a voulu parler ! 
Et, dussent-ils tous enrager, 
Je coucherais avecque lui !

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author ( 15th century )

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by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
5. They've spoken ill of my lover
Language: English 
They've spoken ill of my lover,
and this has distressed my heart.
Is it their business what he is like,
or whether he's handsome or ugly,
when he likes me and I like him?
 
A slanderer is never well-meaning:
when the matter doesn't affect him at all,
why does he speak ill?
He creates a life of misery
for people who ask nothing of him.
 
All things considered,
there are no women who aren't talked about.
That is what encourages me
to take pleasure.
So people rightly say that I do.
 
Now would to God that the man were here
whom I have taken and chosen,
given that folk have wanted to talk of him!
And, even if they all get angry,
I would lie with him!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2017 by Peter Low, (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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This text was added to the website: 2017-08-11
Line count: 20
Word count: 127

Translation © by Peter Low
6. Les trois présents
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Je vous donne, avec grand plaisir, 
De trois présents un à choisir. 
La belle, c'est à vous de prendre 
Celui des trois qui plus vous duit.
Les voici, sans vous faire attendre : 
Bonjour, bonsoir et bonne nuit.

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by Jean-François Sarasin (1614 - 1654)
6. The three presents
Language: English 
I offer you, with great pleasure,
three presents, for you to choose one.
It's up to you, my beauty, to take
the one of the three that most suits you.
Here they are, with no more delay:
good day, good evening, and goodnight.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2017 by Peter Low, (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: 

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This text was added to the website: 2017-08-11
Line count: 6
Word count: 43

Translation © by Peter Low