A rave: Georges Brassens' "Les Passantes"
Sep. 9th, 2008 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sheenaghpughWhat’s the opposite of a rant? A rave? Maybe. Anyway this is one. Something recalled Georges Brassens to my mind recently and I hunted up my favourite of all his songs, “Les Passantes” on YouTube – it’s one I don’t have on LP and hadn’t heard, except in my head, since I was about 25, though I still recalled most of the words. And now that I’m older it’s even better than I thought it was then.
There probably never was a songwriter quite so poetic as Brassens, and probably also never one who was quite so into angst (though he also had a wicked sense of humour). And this is one of his most enduring and typical themes; the man who is so shy, retiring and cautious that he never really lives at all but at secondhand (not a million miles from his own personality). He has a famous song, “La Non-Demande en Mariage” in which he explains why he would rather sustain a relationship completely in the imagination than risk the disappointments of a real one, and “Bonhomme”, on the surface a celebration of a long and happy marriage, begins at the point where the wife is on her way home, unaware that the old man has died in her absence – the end of all happy relationships.
“Les Passantes” is a celebration of all the women he may have seen or met briefly but never got to know. It has a peerless line, “mais quand on a manqué sa vie”: when one has missed one’s life – in the sense that one might miss a bus, and with the same rather un-gallic sense of understatement – dear me, I seem to have missed my life. But that’s only one outstanding line in a stream of them. I love it for the poetry but also for the cello accompaniment, which gives exactly the right feel of gentle melancholy.
He sings slow and clear, so my rusty French can keep up, but if you need subtitles there is a version with them at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj5yvHJXMLM&feature=related and it is a good translation – apart from my favourite line, which does NOT mean “when one has failed at life” - but it isn’t a patch on my favourite vid, which has him singing it at night in a small café, an ambience this shy man greatly preferred to the stage. This vid is terrifically atmospheric, especially when it moves in to the close-up, and it’s at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr0EFfh3FUQ
Je veux dédier ce poème
A toutes les femmes qu'on aime
Pendant quelques instants secrets
A celles qu'on connait à peine
Qu'un destin différent entraîne
Et qu'on ne retrouve jamais
A celle qu'on voit apparaître
Une seconde à sa fenêtre
Et qui, preste, s'évanouit
Mais dont la svelte silhouette
Est si gracieuse et fluette
Qu'on en demeure épanoui
A la compagne de voyage
Dont les yeux, charmant paysage
Font paraître court le chemin
Qu'on est seul, peut-être, à comprendre
Et qu'on laisse pourtant descendre
Sans avoir effleuré sa main
A la fine et souple valseuse
Qui vous sembla triste et nerveuse
Par une nuit de carnaval
Qui voulu rester inconnue
Et qui n'est jamais revenue
Tournoyer dans un autre bal
A celles qui sont déjà prises
Et qui, vivant des heures grises
Près d'un être trop différent
Vous ont, inutile folie,
Laissé voir la mélancolie
D'un avenir désespérant
Chères images aperçues
Espérances d'un jour déçues
Vous serez dans l'oubli demain
Pour peu que le bonheur survienne
Il est rare qu'on se souvienne
Des épisodes du chemin
Mais si l'on a manqué sa vie
On songe avec un peu d'envie
A tous ces bonheurs entrevus
Aux baisers qu'on n'osa pas prendre
Aux cœurs qui doivent vous attendre
Aux yeux qu'on n'a jamais revus
Alors, aux soirs de lassitude
Tout en peuplant sa solitude
Des fantômes du souvenir
On pleure les lêvres absentes
De toutes ces belles passantes
Que l'on n'a pas su retenir
[ Les Passantes Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]
He really was one of the finest French poets of the last century.
There probably never was a songwriter quite so poetic as Brassens, and probably also never one who was quite so into angst (though he also had a wicked sense of humour). And this is one of his most enduring and typical themes; the man who is so shy, retiring and cautious that he never really lives at all but at secondhand (not a million miles from his own personality). He has a famous song, “La Non-Demande en Mariage” in which he explains why he would rather sustain a relationship completely in the imagination than risk the disappointments of a real one, and “Bonhomme”, on the surface a celebration of a long and happy marriage, begins at the point where the wife is on her way home, unaware that the old man has died in her absence – the end of all happy relationships.
“Les Passantes” is a celebration of all the women he may have seen or met briefly but never got to know. It has a peerless line, “mais quand on a manqué sa vie”: when one has missed one’s life – in the sense that one might miss a bus, and with the same rather un-gallic sense of understatement – dear me, I seem to have missed my life. But that’s only one outstanding line in a stream of them. I love it for the poetry but also for the cello accompaniment, which gives exactly the right feel of gentle melancholy.
He sings slow and clear, so my rusty French can keep up, but if you need subtitles there is a version with them at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj5yvHJXMLM&feature=related and it is a good translation – apart from my favourite line, which does NOT mean “when one has failed at life” - but it isn’t a patch on my favourite vid, which has him singing it at night in a small café, an ambience this shy man greatly preferred to the stage. This vid is terrifically atmospheric, especially when it moves in to the close-up, and it’s at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr0EFfh3FUQ
Je veux dédier ce poème
A toutes les femmes qu'on aime
Pendant quelques instants secrets
A celles qu'on connait à peine
Qu'un destin différent entraîne
Et qu'on ne retrouve jamais
A celle qu'on voit apparaître
Une seconde à sa fenêtre
Et qui, preste, s'évanouit
Mais dont la svelte silhouette
Est si gracieuse et fluette
Qu'on en demeure épanoui
A la compagne de voyage
Dont les yeux, charmant paysage
Font paraître court le chemin
Qu'on est seul, peut-être, à comprendre
Et qu'on laisse pourtant descendre
Sans avoir effleuré sa main
A la fine et souple valseuse
Qui vous sembla triste et nerveuse
Par une nuit de carnaval
Qui voulu rester inconnue
Et qui n'est jamais revenue
Tournoyer dans un autre bal
A celles qui sont déjà prises
Et qui, vivant des heures grises
Près d'un être trop différent
Vous ont, inutile folie,
Laissé voir la mélancolie
D'un avenir désespérant
Chères images aperçues
Espérances d'un jour déçues
Vous serez dans l'oubli demain
Pour peu que le bonheur survienne
Il est rare qu'on se souvienne
Des épisodes du chemin
Mais si l'on a manqué sa vie
On songe avec un peu d'envie
A tous ces bonheurs entrevus
Aux baisers qu'on n'osa pas prendre
Aux cœurs qui doivent vous attendre
Aux yeux qu'on n'a jamais revus
Alors, aux soirs de lassitude
Tout en peuplant sa solitude
Des fantômes du souvenir
On pleure les lêvres absentes
De toutes ces belles passantes
Que l'on n'a pas su retenir
[ Les Passantes Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]
He really was one of the finest French poets of the last century.
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Date: 2008-09-09 09:42 am (UTC)I love your blog nominations
Date: 2008-09-11 10:09 am (UTC)http://kathzsblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/tour-of-blogosphere.html
Re: I love your blog nominations
Date: 2008-09-11 10:17 am (UTC)will try to work out how to do that.... Thanks for mentioning David Morley's blog too; I know his poems but hadn't come across the blog.
Re: I love your blog nominations
Date: 2008-09-25 10:41 am (UTC)//Stefan (Sweden)