Thread: Mon Taxi Driver
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Old 09-29-2008, 07:33 AM
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Default green light, my lover

Thanks Toc de Mac and some others who helped with the translations here. Some of the English one might want to use a different expression for. It even varies in English. But, I think this is pretty much it. My translation in it's entirety.
This song is so charged. It's sexy and ... I can't think of the word but when she says this "never-green light" it pulls on the heart strings to think of this passion restrained. She talks about langor and this "arrest of the heart" (a term which works for some people in English) being accidental. It seems they have a passion which maybe isn't quite going to work. So, it seems more romantic in a way if it's about Jérémy and therefore nice to think of that, but with this further understanding it doesn't quite seem right. Any way you look at it, what an incredible thing to me married to her. It just kills me. Further, it seems kind of whimsical the way the counter forces are brought in this song; so, more so even that word I can't think of. It's yet another example of a song with the potential to be very heavy with emotion, yet is tempered by the way it is presented and the way Alizée sings it. Result: we have a nice song that is interesting and evocative, but doesn't wear one out by over-doing it. And it leaves us with the image of Alizée's personality being somewhat researved, but we get a taste of a fire that burns in her love of romanticism which she keeps happily under control. Thinking of it this way, this is so much of the earlier era Alizée, though it sounds different. It is similar I think to À Contre-Courant. But it's late and I may not be thinking any of this through well enough.

"Mon Taxi Driver"

Éteins le moteur,
Laisse le compteur
Que les aiguilles jouent les anguilles

Laissons les voleurs
Voler nos douleurs
Laissons aux rouleurs ce qui brille

Laisse les menteurs
Nier la chaleur
La mécanique au cœur des filles

Feu vert mon lover
Goûte la saveur
Sous mon pull-over

Si sexy mon taxi driver
C’est accidentel
Cet arrêt du cœur

Paris féerique
Sans périphérique
La rue meurt de tant de fureur

Métal et plastique
La vie élastique
Nous fait danser de faux bonheur


Feu vert mon lover
Goûte la saveur
Sous mon pull-over

Fais-moi une faveur mon lover
C’est providentiel
Ce feu jamais vert

Si sexy mon taxi driver
Ma petite musique (whispering)
Me rend électrique (whispering)

Si sexy mon taxi driver
Langueur et saveur
Rêveur forever

Si sexy mon taxi driver
C’est accidentel
Cet arrêt du cœur

Feu vert mon lover
Goûte la saveur
Sous mon pull-over


Fais-moi une faveur mon lover
C’est providentiel
Ce feu jamais vert

(en anglais)

Turn off the motor,
leave the meter
who's needles play eels *1


Let's leave the thieves,
to steal our pain,
Let's leave the cyclists that which shines *2


Let the liars
deny the heat,
the operating mechanism at the heart of girls *3

Green light my lover,
taste the flavor,
under my pull-over

So sexy my taxi driver
it's accidental,
This arrest of the heart

Enchanting Paris *4
without a "ring road" *5
the road dies from so much fury *6
*7

metal and plastic
the elastic life
makes us dance from false happiness

Green light my lover
taste the flavor
under my pull-over


Do me a favor my lover
it's providential
This never-green light


So sexy my taxi driver
my little music
makes me electric

So sexy my taxi driver,
languor and flavor,
dreamer forever


So sexy my taxi driver,
it's accidental,
this arrest of the heart


Green light my lover,
taste the flavor,
under my pull-over


Do me a favor my lover,
It's providential,
This never-green light


*1 I think that's the intent.
*2 I think this would refer to the metals won in the Tour de France for example.
*3 That which propels, drives. The girls are driven by passion.
According to Wiktionnaire: mécanique = Mécanisme de fonctionnement de tout corps.
*4 Can't think of any direct translation. féerique is something like: related to fairies, magical, of a show – a wonderous spectacle.
*5 Ring road is a road that surrounds some major cities. I don't know if it exists in the US, therefore, maybe just highway would do. It's a major road somewhere around and probably connecting major cities.
*6 interpretation guess: This Paris does not have any périphérique roads because they have died from all the activity – people rushing here and there. I'm sure this is also alluding to something else analogously.
*7 Notice that "Paris féerique" sounds almost identical to "périphérique" which is certainly intentional and "rue meurt" sounds exactly like "rumeur" which may be intentional. Point is, there's understanding that adds to the flavor (la saveur) of the song that is lost completely when translated.
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Merci Fanny

Last edited by Roman; 09-29-2008 at 07:36 AM..
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