Friday, March 4, 2011

Comment te dire adieu (How to say goodbye to you)*

Sung by Françiose Hardy:


Translation after the jump..


Sous aucun prétex-
Under no circum-
Te je ne veux
Stances, I don't want (you)
Avoir de réflex-
To have a react-
E malheureux
Ion unfortunate
Il faut que tu m'ex
It's a must that you ex-
Pliques un peu mieux
Plain to me a little better
Comment te dire adieu
How to say goodbye to you*

Mon cœur de silex
My heart of flint
Vite prend feu
Quickly catches fire
Ton cœur de pyrex
Your heart of pyrex
Résiste mieux
Resists better
Je suis bien perplex-
I am very perplex-
E je ne peux
Ed I can not
Me résoudre aux adieux
Bring my self to goodbye
Je suis bien qu’un ex-
I am an ex-
Amour n’a pas de chance ou si peu
Love has no chance or very little
Mais pour moi une ex-
But for me an Ex-
Plication vaudrait mieux
Planation would be better

Sous aucun prétex-
Under no circum-
Te je ne veux
Stances, I don't want
Devant toi surex-
You to first overex-??? (I want this to flow better)
Poser mes yeux
Pose my eyes
Derrière un Kleenex
behind a Kleenex
Je saurais mieux
I should know better
Comment te dire adieu
How to say goodbye to you*

Tu as mis à l’index
You’ve put on the list
Nos nuits blanches nos matins gris-bleu
Our white nights our gray-blue mornings
Mais pour moi une ex-
But for me an ex-
Plication vaudrait mieux
Planation would be better

Lyrics by Serge Gainsbourg, Translation by Greg Smith & help from an unknown friend

3 comments:

  1. Hi! Love your project! I learned a lot of the French I know from translating Mylene Farmer, and I adore Serge! :)
    Be careful however, the title rather means "How to say goodbye to you" otherwise "tu" would be used, and it would be "dis" instead if "dire"...

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the suggestion, I will make the change. Glad you are enjoying the project and feel free to send any other suggestions. It can take some time for me to get to them, but I really appreciate it.

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  2. Great site interestingly this song is an English song It hurts to say Goodbye F Hardy asked Serge to translate though he thoroughly rewrote and turned it from a ballad to a pop song.

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