Thread: Lilly Town
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Old 12-10-2007, 03:07 AM
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This is great that we have more French people (Francophones in general) here. So, help us poor ignorant folks out more! I think I may have translated a few things better than RMJ or Cooney and a few I think none of us are quite getting. It's a pretty sad state of affairs when I am trying to do a translation. The whole song seems to be filled with idioms, poetic expression, and cultural references making it rather difficult to translate. I immediately though of "Lucy in the sky with diamonds", but what does Bree signify, for example?
I hightlighted those things that seem to be significantly different from what they wrote. Please set me straight on the stuff that is wrong or untranslated:
Welcome
Welcome to Lilly Town valley
The city color and shape (14)
Granny apple

London
Or Rome at its side are out of fashion
no Miss Hilton here
Paris is astonished (or surprised or something) (15)

In Lilly Town
the children dance
to the Motown oldies (1)
in school (2)


There is even
A sky so blue
That one can see there, Lucy
That one can even see there, if one wants
John or Gandhi
Or sweet words are written like (3)
Al and Simone (have written)

Lilly in her bed dreaming of Lilly Town

Seven small men wander
In deep dreams (6)
Whistling Angie of the Rolling Stones (4)
By changing the air (5)


The nuns
Have cornets full of ice cream (ice cream cones)
Earphones imagine (16)
Singing Lennon


In Lilly Town
The children fly
To the Motown oldies
Dancing with the trolls

There is even
A sky so blue
That one can see there, Lucy
That one can even see there, if one wants
John or Gandhi
Or sweet words are written like (3)
Al and Simone (have written)
Lilly in her bed dreaming of Lilly Town

In Lilly Town
the children dance
to the Motown oldies (1)
in school (2)

There is even
A sky so blue
That one can see there, Lucy
That one can do anything he wants
According to his wishes
Où l'on pique un tout petit somme (7)
Al Capone's place (or home or whatever)
Desire to take the tram to Lilly Town


On a whim
Was the trip
Balai delay
Faire Bree et le ménage (9)


Charmed
blue of the sky
And fa si fa sol (18)
Of the other stars, also considering
The do, sealed on the ground (12)
Coco, chocolate milk, macadamiyum cookies

And every evening men
who play checkers (11)

In Lilly Town
Even the time dances
To the Motown oldies
During detention (19)


There is even
A sky so blue
That one can see there, Lucy
That one can even see there, if one wants
John or Gandhi
Or sweet words are written like (3)
Al and Simone (have written)
Lilly in her bed dreaming of Lilly Town

In Lilly Town
The children fly
To the Motown oldies
above brambles

There is even
Blue of the sky
And some fa si fa sol
Of the other stars, also considering
The do, sealed on the ground (12)
Coco, chocolate milk, macadamiyum cookies
Lilly Town is a dream
For all these ladies (13)

(1) "des vieux" refers to old ones (old men as Babelfish translates), in this case old Motown music
(2) "les cours d'école" means something like courses of school - this does not translate very directly
(3) one needs to know specific grammar to get this, but this is my guess
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angie_(Rolling_Stones_song) (Alizée's musical tastes are certainly different from Mylène and Laurent.) http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=bbZcslc9M78
(5) RMJ and Cooney's translation sounds more correct, but babelfish translates it this way. It translates "En l'air changeant" as "In the changing air". Seems like there's something more to this than the translation captures either way.
(6) going with RMJ's translation
(7) can't figure it out yet and I'm a little skeptical of the other translations
(8) "ad lib" or improvised - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad%5Flibitum
(9) not sure what this means, balai = broom, le ménage = household – something about delaying cleaning up and something about Bree ??
(11) various sources suggest this "play with ladies" means play checkers
(12) scellées au sol is an idomatic expression apparently, but I don't know what it means
(13) this could actually refer to something else, like referring to the peices of the checkers game metaphorically
(14) this seems to be grammatically bare in French too, so, I figured I'd leave it that way. Imagine there being a couple semicolons.
(15) maybe it means this, but is not an important interpretation because the word play is what is important. In French it sounds like Paris Hilton.
Besides just taking the word of a person who knows French, "ici pas de Miss Hilton" - ici = here, if pas = step it is a noun, not a verb, and also because "de" Miss Hilton, it just doesn't make sense to try to translate that as step 'here step of miss hilton'.
A question, even if Paris s'étonne clearly is said because it sounds like Paris Hilton, the words actually mean something. So, if it means Paris is surprised or astonished or something, is that really supposed to just be ignored and not really mean much - or I guess we can draw our own conclusion?
(16) imaginent is a pluralized present tense verb, is it not?
(17) the word faire is used, not voir
(18) translators leave fa and do as musical notes, also have found references to 'fa si fa sol' in music. Just do a web search.
(19) as close as I can figure with translators and looking up les heures de colle – punishment in school suggestive of detention.
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Merci Fanny
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