Couplets de la rue Saint-Martin | Je n'aime plus la rue Saint-Martin

by Robert Desnos (1900 - 1945)

Je n'aime plus la rue Saint‑Martin

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG GER

Je n'aime plus la rue Saint-Martin
Depuis qu'André Platard l'a quittée,
Je n'aime plus la rue Saint-Martin,
Je n'aime rien, pas même le vin.

Je n'aime plus la rue Saint-Martin
Depuis qu'André Platard l'a quittée.
C'est mon ami, c'est mon copain,
Nous partagions la chambre et le pain.
Je n'aime plus la rue Saint-Martin.

C'est mon ami, c'est mon copain.
Il a disparu un matin,
Ils l'ont emmené, on ne sait plus rien,
On ne l'a plus revu dans la rue Saint-Martin.

Pas la peine d'implorer les saints,
Saint Merry, Jacques, Gervais et Martin,
Pas même Valérien qui se cache sur la colline.

Le temps passe, on ne sait rien,
André Platard a quitté la rue Saint-Martin.

About the headline (FAQ)

Translator's note: Desnos wrote this text in 1942 after his friend Platard disappeared. The Rue Saint-Martin is in central Paris, near the churches of St Merri, St Gervais and the Tour St-Jacques. But Valéien is west of the city; it's a fort where over 1000 Frenchmen were executed between 1941 and 1944, as Poulenc knew when he wrote the song in 1947. He knew also that the poet Desnos died in a German concentration camp.

Text Authorship:

by Robert Desnos (1900 - 1945), "Couplets de la rue Saint-Martin", written 1942, appears in Destinée arbitraire, appears in État de veille, no. 12 [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 Marcel Delannoy (1898 - 1962), "Je n'aime plus la rue Saint-Martin", op. 48 no. 3 (1943), published 1946 [ medium voice and piano ], from État de Veille, no. 3, Édition Max Eschig [sung text not yet checked]
by Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Le disparu", FP 134 (1947), published 1947 [ medium voice and piano ], Éd. Rouart, Lerolle [sung text checked 1 time]

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 117