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):

• ENG English (Peter Low) , "He has disappeared", copyright © 2002, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GER German (Deutsch) (Ingrid Schmithüsen) , "Der Verschwundene", copyright © 2013, (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: 18
Word count: 117

 I don't like the Rue Saint-Martin any more,
 not since André Platard left it.
 I don't like the Rue Saint-Martin any more.
 There's nothing I like, not even wine.
 
 I don't like the Rue Saint-Martin any more,
 not since André Platard left it.
 He's my friend, he's my buddy.
 We shared a room, we shared our food.
 I don't like the Rue Saint-Martin any more.
 
 He's my friend, he's my buddy.
 One morning he disappeared.
 They took him away, and we've heard nothing since.
 He's not been seen again in the Rue Saint-Martin.
 
 It's not worth praying to the saints -
 Saint Merri or Saint Jacques, Saint Gervais or Martin,
 or even Valérien who hides up on the hill.
 
 Time passes. We know nothing.
 André Platard has left the Rue Saint-Martin.