D'oh! I had missed the reply!
The translation was a very quick one that I did before leaving for work, and I'll readily admit parts weren't right :-) I don't have any debate for those corrections either, merely my thanks for pointing them out! I'll get them inserted in the original.
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Originally Posted by aFrenchie
I'm not sure about these two lines:
- "I forget the times when I remained,". For me in the original French, she means "I forget the time I have left"
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That works much better. I applied the verb "rester" to "je" rather than to "les temps," and couldn't quite figure out why it sounded so wierd. That explains it much better (I hadn't heard "me reste" as "remaining to me" (that I have left) before).
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- "What that adds up to,". "Ce qui compte" means "what has an importance", maybe also "what counts", word for word?
But maybe you just used English expressions that I don't know and that are a correct translation...
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What I said had different meaning, and yours is certainly better. "Compte" being a mathematical term, I tried to go that way, but I used the wrong American phrase. Would the literal translation of "Ce qui compte" be "That which adds together?" I've tried translating "compte" before, and have never been able to satisfactorily do so (clearly, I still need work! :-P). It seems like maybe an idiomatic expression? The new meaning you provide can be expressed in English as "What counts is having desire" or as "What matters is to have desire." The second is more standard, but the first will retain the literal meaning more closely.
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You got this one wrong though:
"They have to drown themselves, melt themselves,"
"S'il faut se noyer, se fondre"
I know the verb "falloir" must be a pain for foreigners since you have no equivalent, and it conjugates only with "il" ("it"). You can say "il faut que", never "je faux que", or "tu faux que", etc... It means that the subject following "que" must/has to/would rather do what follows.
"Il faut que je parte travailler" : "I have to go to work"
It's more general and contextual when it's followed by an infinitive verb, like in this song. But you still can vary like you want in English. Here, you could translate:
"If you(or I) have to drown your(my)self, melt your(my)self,
.......
I would rather pay the price"
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Ahh, "il faut," yes, I should have known this one and didn't. I saw the "se" reflexive and immediately thought it was third person, forgetting that with "il faut," one can use "se" and still be in the first person.
Thanks for the help!