It’s time to go to the ball | It’s time to go to the ball

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by Max Jacob (1876 - 1944)

Translation © by Laura Prichard

C'est pour aller au bal

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

C’est pour aller au bal,
au bal, au bal, au baïkal allah!
au bal allah à la balalaïka

Rades du tyran
terre du Levant
Baron du devant tirades

nomme azur ce que
la dame mazurke
je t’assure que
cette danse est turque nomades

Est-ce bal à bord
Est-ce bu en bottes
on chante un foxtrotte
les phoques se trottent
faux nègres et, fausses notes

Escouade
Pars à des requins
que fait Arlequin
Pars en rat, pas rare sequin
repas rare Parade

C’est pour aller au bal,
au bal, au bal, au baïkal allah!
au bal allah à la balalaïka

Text Authorship:

by Max Jacob (1876 - 1944), appears in Ballades, first published 1938 [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), "C'est pour aller au bal", FP. 22 no. 2 [ baritone and woodwinds ], from Quatre poèmes de Max Jacob, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "It’s time to go to the ball", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Laura Prichard [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2018-01-04
Line count: 23
Word count: 99

It’s time to go to the ball

Language: English after the French (Français)

It’s [time] to go to the ball,
to the ball, to the ball, to [Lake] Baikal by God, let’s go!
to the ball by God, let’s go to the balalaika

Harbors of the tyrant
land of the Levant
Baron of the speeches in front

called blue so that
the lady mazurka
I assure you that
this dance is nomadic Turkish

Is this ball on board
Is it drunk in boots
someone sings a foxtrot-song
the seals dance a seal-trot
false Negroes and false notes

Squadron
Go to the sharks
what's Harlequin doing
Go like a rat, not a rare sequin
repast rare Parade

It’s [time] to go to the ball,
to the ball, to the ball, to [Lake] Baikal by God, let’s go!
to the ball by God, let’s go to the balalaika!

Translator's notes:
This is Cubist poetry, playing with the sounds of the words and re-ordering syllables for comic effect. The sound of the French poetry is more important to the comic flavor of the poem than the literal meaning. Max Jacob was a roommate of Pablo Picasso in Montmartre.

Line 2, passim : "allah" is a comic portmanteau here: "Allah" with a capital A refers to the Arabic name of God, and "allons" is French for "Let’s go."

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2018 by Laura 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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Max Jacob (1876 - 1944), appears in Ballades, first published 1938
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2018-01-04
Line count: 23
Word count: 133