Une Enfant du Siècle lyrics

[Toc De Mac]

I'm just reposting the translation that I did of the French parts of Les Collines. If anyone has any more thoughts, please let me know.

The Hills

Hunted, I've reached the hills,
I've gone underground,
Thrown off the hound-dogs, covered my tracks,
Disguised my flight,
My bags are empty, my heart light,
Light

...

New York, I'm sorry, I loved you so,
But I have to go,
Your neverending store windows, your golden skylines,
I'll do without them,
Beside the Hesperides, I will go dress
The timid big-cats, the wounded swans,
Wounded

[Alex]

Gracias Amigo! Good translation, but I think there are just a few errors or misinterpretations of the translation....

Originally Posted by Amigo!

La Candida (The Naive One)

Im here you're there
For me you'll return
I'll die i'll die

I think its:
I'm dying I'm dying or I die I die
because "me muero" is in the present tense

I know you're faithful
Never lie
You'll never forget.
There is no other.
Who would you love
if not me?

Think it's:
You'll never lie

Im the naive one
In love
I believe in you

Think it's:
I believed you
because she is talking in past tense "te crei"

I'm the naive one
You do not deceive me.
You think of me.

I know you're faithful
Never Lie
I'll die i'll die
Happy, without me?
Oh god you couldn't
You live here
Here very much here *
Only for me.
I believe in you

Think it's:
You'll never lie
I'm dying I'm dying or I die I die

* Here I think it's the way one interprets it, and this is how I understand it:
Here right here

I'm the naive one
In love
You think of me

I think it's this:
I beleived you
because it says "yo te crei" ="Ibelieved you"

I'm the naive one
You do not deceive me.
You think of me.

Naive

Blind


The translation of "la candida" was a bit tricky to narrow down in english but I could only figure it out until the very last word in the song. This song is powerful and makes so much sense to me now.

Those were the few mistakes I believe I found in your translation, other than that I thank you for the translation overall, you did great! Thanks, and above all thanks for finding the closest translation in English for La Candida

And also THANKS to all of you guys that have also translated the other songs!

[Fall]

Oh well, no point in posting it now then. Thanks for getting on here though.

[Sir Wood]

Good job folks, keep it up!

Chuck based on this french phrase: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%A7a_y_est
"Ça y est" should be "That's it" (on the first line)

And "Under the edges of her wide-brimmed hat smokes a Lucky" I'm thinking it should read as "Under the edges of her wide-brimmed hat smoking a Lucky"


Anyone want to help Ben with translating Lime Light? There seems to be a french word in there that he must not know.

[Roman]

Thanks to everyone who worked on this and thanks a bunch to Amigo and Alex for La Candida.

I have a few suggestions also.

Originally Posted by Chuck

Grand Central, submitted for your approval:

This is there
Converse laced up
Hair let down
We've arrived
....

C'est meiux encore = It's better still (as in, even better)
Toute le monde descend = Everyone heads down? (I think this is saying more like everyone goes there and swamps the place. So more literally, everyone descends [upon Grand Central Station])
Les feux revêches = The grumpy signal lights. Yes, I think it makes the most sense in the case of a train station to think of the train signal lights or maybe traffic lights up on the street.
grésillait - I would translate this as crackled (note past tense as it's in the "imparfait" in the song) to give the intended visceral affect to the language describing the smoking of the "Lucky" cigarette.
[translation edited 2010-04-12]
That’s it
Converse laced up
Hair let down
We've arrived
Inside
Ah how nice
In the echoes
Under the dome
It's better yet
Once outside
It is so blue
It is so loud
We are so slight
(I am hungry, my God, I am hungry)

Grand Central
Grand Central
Everyone gets off *3

Two arrows
The grumpy signal lights *1
The crossed topcoat
The squared shoulders
Of the veteran
The policemen

Their Adam's apples
It’s spring
The towers of steel
Forty-Second Street
Thousandth Avenue
The Salvation Army
There is no skyline
(It is science fiction)

Grand Central
Grand Central
Nobody waits for her

She was waiting for a limousine under the canopy of Tiffany
One might have taken her for the daughter of the president, a real nuisance
Under the edges of her wide-brimmed hat crackled a Lucky *2
She asks me who I know on the east coast

Between azure and her blonde eyes, the sun chose
Edie, Edie, girl of straw, Edie of the Factory
Edie was of a rather beautiful sort

Grand Central
Grand Central
Nobody waits for her

*1 This is sort of a guess. It makes the most sense in the case of a train station to think of the train signal lights or maybe traffic lights up on the street.
*2 Lucky is a brand of cigarette
*3 Gets off the train here at Grand Central Station
----

By the way, speaking of Limelight... It is nice to finally have the correct lyrics there. I guess Alizée's accent just throws me a bit sometimes. Oh well. But, now also I can see the parts:
always and all ways
a way and away
now that I see that's what they are, it does make more sense.

[FanDeAliFee]

Originally Posted by Sir Wood

...Anyone want to help Ben with translating Lime Light? There seems to be a french word in there that he must not know.

Actually, it's not the French word spelled the same way, but rather a reference to an English-language <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oui_(magazine)">serial</a> which began life as <i>Playboy</i>'s naughty pseudo-French cousin when I was as young as many of you here. Since Ben is still very callow, even more innocently jejune than Alizée herself, I had to bring him up to speed by providing him with suitable hardcopy for extended study.

Originally Posted by Sir Wood

Good job folks, keep it up!

Don't worry, Ben is. I'm sure he's working very hard. (Oh, I've always wondered: Is "Sir Wood" some sort of picturesque sobriquet?)

Happily, the rest of <i>Limelight</i> is written in Canadian, which, thanks to lots of tutoring from Ruroshen, I've at last mastered passably well. (This new choice of language may explain Alizée's recent YouTube success in the Great White North after years of disappointing indifference in Québec.)

So until Ben, shall we say, "comes to a conclusion," I offer my reading of the song to the impatient at <a href="http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showpost.php?p=151721&postcount=181"><i>Standing by Tinkerbell</i></a>, as supplemented by a postscript at <a href="http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showpost.php?p=153158&postcount=223"><i>Improved version?</i></a>

[Amigo!]

Originally Posted by Alex

Gracias Amigo! Good translation, but I think there are just a few errors or misinterpretations of the translation....

Think it's:
I believed you
because she is talking in past tense "te crei"

The lyrics on the website are wrong in a couple of places. That's what you went off of not what she actually sings.


She says...

Soy la candida
enamorada
Yo creo en ti

Not "Yo te crei"

Originally Posted by Alex

I think it's this:
I beleived you
because it says "yo te crei" ="Ibelieved you"

No, she says "Piensas en mi" twice towards the end of the song

1Soy la candida
enamorada
Piensas en mi

2Soy la candida
Tu no me engañas
Piensas en mi

Details details... you have watch out for those mistakes and typos on her website, who knows how many more there could actually be in the french songs that no one has noticed

The other stuff I was more or less on the fence, it was trying to figure out like you mentioned what tense she was singing in, but anyways.

[Sir Wood]

Originally Posted by docdtv

Actually, it's not the French word spelled the same way, but rather a reference to an English-language <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oui_(magazine)">serial</a> which began life as <i>Playboy</i>'s naughty pseudo-French cousin when I was as young as many of you here. Since Ben is still very callow, even more innocently jejune than Alizée herself, I had to bring him up to speed by providing him with suitable hardcopy for extended study.

According to your wikipedia link to "Oui" magazine, it was not published under that name "Oui" until October of 1972 and prior to that it was only known in France as "Lui" ("Him") since it's 1963 inception. Edie's life spanned from April 20, 1943 to November 16, 1971, so that would not stay true to the story being told on the album (perhaps poetic liscensing). As with all music, it's up to the person to interpret the meaning of the song in his/her own way since we do not know the author's true lyrical intent. (Sort of what Roman and I have been going over off-line with Eden, Eden.)

(Oh, I've always wondered: Is "Sir Wood" some sort of picturesque sobriquet?)

It's simply a phonetic pronunciation.


Note to all: As work on the translations are made and errors found, I often go back and update the orginal lyrics in the first post.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Amigo!

The lyrics on the website are wrong in a couple of places. That's what you went off of not what she actually sings.


She says...

Soy la candida
enamorada
Yo creo en ti

Not "Yo te crei"




No, she says "Piensas en mi" twice towards the end of the song

1Soy la candida
enamorada
Piensas en mi

2Soy la candida
Tu no me engañas
Piensas en mi

Details details... you have watch out for those mistakes and typos on her website, who knows how many more there could actually be in the french songs that no one has noticed

The other stuff I was more or less on the fence, it was trying to figure out like you mentioned what tense she was singing in, but anyways.

Ah now I understand lol; well thank you for the official site error notice The thing is that I still haven't heard the album so that's why I did not know of this, thanks again Amigo for your translation and heads up on the lyrics and actual singing . Thanks man. (my mistake xD)

[Toc De Mac]

Hi Roman , here are some things that I would suggest:

a) In English, I would say, “It’s better yet” for “C’est mieux encore.”

b) I think “Nous sommes si peu” means rather “We are so few.”

c) “Tout le monde descend”: I can’t be sure of its meaning, but if we assume that it probably has the meaning posted (which I agree that it does), then I would put it in present progressive: “Everybody is heading down.”

d) “Deux flèches” could mean different things; I don’t know how even French people understand it without context here. Two spires? Two (turn) signals? Two (street) signs?

e) “C’est le printemps” – just “It’s spring”

f) “L’Armée du Salut” – “The Salvation Army”

g) "Elle attendait une limousine..." -- "She was waiting for a limousine"

h) “Une vraie peste” – “A real nuisance”? I think "nuisance" is more used in American English.

i) "Edie était du genre..." – Edie was of a rather beautiful sort