Ahhhh....

[maeve66]

I love Jean Ferrat. I love just about everything right at this moment. The person I had the argument with, the person I behaved childishly with, called after reading my e-mail and to be honest, all is right in my world. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, as well as a bit of an over-the-top admission of the importance of this connection, to me. Nonetheless, I am very happy.

Jean Ferrat... He's French, and pretty much was the bard of the French Left. I've never been completely sure whether he was PCF (the French CP) or just PS (the Socialist Party), but he sounds more CPish, to me. His songs are very lyric driven. Some of the them are beautiful love ballads, some are just humorous comments on the French Left, on the pretensions of the petty bourgeoisie, and some are more serious contemplations of politics. He's got this one lament on the crimes of Stalin (which sounds ludicrous but is actually quite touching). I love that song. And he's got some very sexy songs, too. There was this one that I learned in high school and used to sing everywhere, secure in the knowledge that no one would understand what I was saying.

Here are the lyrics. I would alternate between this, the original version, and a version where I'd invert the gender roles so that I, the singer, could speak in a feminine voice.

L'Amour Est Cerise

Rebelle et soumise, paupières baissées,
Quitte ta chemise, ma belle fiancée
L'amour est cerise, et le temps pressé
C'est partie remise, pour aller danser

Autant qu'il nous semble, raisonable et fou
Nous irons ensemble, au-delà de tout
Prête-moi ta bouche, pour t'aimer un peu
Ouvre-moi ta couche, pour l'amour de dieu

Laisse-moi sans crainte, venir à genoux
Goûter ton absinthe, boire ton vin doux
Ô rires et plaintes, ô mots insensées
Ta folle complainte, c'est vite elancée

Défions le monde, et ses interdits
Ton plaisir inonde ma bouche ravie
Vertu ou licence, pardieu je m'en fous
Je perds mon semence dans ton sexe roux

Ô Pierrot de lune, ô monts et merveilles
Voilà que ma plume tombe de sommeil
Et comme une louvre, aux enfants frileux
La nuit nous recouvre, de son manteau bleu

Rebelle et soumise, paupières lassées
Remets ta chemise, ma belle fiancée
L'amour est cerise, et le temps passé
C'est partie remise pour aller danser

I love that song. I kind of wish I had an audio link to this thing, because I feel perfectly unselfconscious singing that song. I translated it once, for myself... I could do it again if anyone is burning to hear.

Salut, Abra

Comments

[oblomova.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read John Steinbeck's The Short Reign of Pippin IV? It's been years since I've read it, but as I recall, it's a very funny sendup of French politics. The upshot is that the French decide they want to return the blood of Charlemagne to power, and so a lowly fellow becomes King (while his daughter pursues marriage to the son of the Egg King of Petaluma -- this was the first time I ever heard of Petaluma). But the new king still has to deal with all the different political parties like the Christian Atheists, the Atheist Christians, etc. (Not unlike the People's Party of Judea/Judean People's Party in Life of Brian. "Splitter!")

Quite out of the usual vein for Steinbeck, too.

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't, though I like Steinbeck (being named out of East of Eden, for one thing). I will look for it... but I read and was disturbed by his condemnation of the CP in In Dubious Battle, where he makes his CP lead character an incredible manipulator for whom the ends justify the means. He has an interesting take on what "the masses" are, in that book.

I love The Life of Brian, and for exactly that reason; the political send up of the far left in Britain (or anywhere, really).

Ta very much for the recommendation

maeve66

[animalogic.livejournal.com]

I have also been troubled by In Dubious Battle. Kenneth Rexroth once took Steinbeck to a union rally where four men were killed and he recalls Steinbeck was so appalled that when he wrote about it, he could only write that one man had been killed. The reality was too much for him. But then Rexroth could be a braggert and the whole story may be apocryphal. Battle does have great value for telling a hard truth that we often don't want to hear: we sometimes become what we behold (and old William Blake line). If we hate something, we take on its characteristics to fight it. I don't like it when that is applied to the left, but the revelations about Stalin might not have been so crushing to the CP in America if more people had been prepared for it.

[7patches.livejournal.com]

I don't speak french, and I can't figure it out from my knowledge of Spanish. I am interested in what the song is about.

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

Rebellious and submissive one, eyelashes lowered
Take off your shirt, my lovely girl
Love is like a cherry, and too little time
It's already too late to go dancing

As sane and insane as it seems to us
Let's follow this out to the end
Give me your mouth so I can love you a little
Open yourself to me, for the love of god

Let me, without fear, kneel before you
Tasting your absinth, drinking your sweet wine
Ah, your laughter and protests, your murmurs
How fleeting they are, swiftly they fade

Let's defy the world, and all its angry rules
Your pleasure floods my ravenous mouth
Virtuous or lewd, I don't give a damn
I'm coming now in your deep red sex

Oh, Pierrot of the Moon, Oh, mountains and marvels
Look how my pen falls from exhaustion
And how, like a caress for shivering children,
the Night covers us with her blue mantle

Rebellious and submissive, eyelashes drooping
Put your shirt back on, my sweet fiancee
Love is like a cherry, and times gone by
It's already too late to go dancing

Ummm...yeah

[7patches.livejournal.com]

I guess I wasn't quite ready for that.
I can see how you would have enjoyed the secret pleasure of singing that to yourself.

I think it's a keeper.
Thanks

[sonicjro.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I was just about to ask for a translation.

[dryadgrl]

Hey you, it's me.
I wanted to say thank you for being so welcoming the other night at the meeting. Feel free to be in touch anytime - I'd love to talk sometime.

Briana