Par les paupières - Page 2

Roman · #11 09-19-2008, 08:56 AM

This is a really great song. It's sad that we have really paid little attention to the lyrics in her songs.
I was thinking about this song the other day and tried to start translating it myself and right away I discovered (or rediscovered) that it really has a strong evocative character right from the first line. It's one of those songs that could be overwhelming with it's melancholy character if not for Alizée's tempering treatment. That's one of the things I've always liked about her singing.

It's amazing that not more French people who actually understand the lyrics are interested in this song. I guess this was from Fauque? Well, bravo. We really all should know French and give thought to the lyrics on this album. It is really unfair to them and moreover to us that we don't understand. 'We are children and they are adults' is the affect of not understanding the words. They are poetic and maybe at times ambiguous or strange. Alizée herself said some things about liking Fauque's ability to do that. I think we would really even understand Alizée, her performances, and her intentions better too if we understood the lyrics better. In the world of lyrics the likes of which are in this song, one can understand better the dreamy sets in her concerts and odd characters like the arliquins.

I have not finished and I am quite sure that I am still missing some understanding. I think some of it is too poetic, idiomatic, and possibly culturally referential to understand without some digging. Having compared my relatively deep analysis of certain lines to what translations we have before, I think there's really a wealth of interesting interpretations that has not been touched on this forum. I think the same is true of many of Alizée's songs from this and other albums. Here's what I have so far:

The eyelids often it's burdensome
One must close them some day
And I sing bordom between the lines
Capricious slingshots (or catapultes)
Please, blink your eyes *1
I take leave I plung into my nursery rhymes

I need a pupil, in the guise of a camisole *2
You make me into a firefly *3
As soon as you feel me more beautiful, do not leave me that secludes me *4
You know nothing but si la sol *5

[refrain]
It doesn't pass by way of a mask
With the words of yesterday
It passes by way of look/glance
Hidden under the eyelids

I feel myself capable
Today to stop the rain
This summer the sky is a comedian
The sandman
Left without saying good night
Too bad I have the Bohemian sleep *6

Cross the hemisphere *7
Straddling the light
You become my heliport
Go throughout the universe in the span of your eyelids *8
Return before dawn

[refrain]

Closed eyelids you do not see anything dark
I am your thing *9
At your side I lose my dreams
Closed eyelids
A dust of shadow
I am your thing
At your side I lose my dreams

refrain x 2
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*1 Please (familiar) blink (second person familiar imperative) (not refering to the slingshots unless grammar is wrong)eyes - doesn't really sound right grammatically in English, so the compromise of adding the word "you".

*2 This is difficult because it's subtle and idiomatic. Basically, it means to have the eyes shut tightly. This is a very poetic way of saying this. A camisole is described at wikipedia as a garment sounding much like a corset.

*3 You render me firefly. There is no imperative verb here.

*4 This is all just difficult to understand.

*5 see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solfege. This same musical reference is used in Lilly Town.

*6 This is kind of a wierd statement and difficult to translate partitially because one must simply understand the meaning of the somewhat ambiguous word Bohemian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemianism and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian
I think it might mean something like a restless sleep though, if one is to lean heavily on the idea of Bohemian relating to gypsies and that connoting wandering. Rendering it in English as "I sleep Bohemian" doesn't seem to capture the same sense grammatically as it's written in French and doesn't really make any sense anyway, whereas taking it poetically, my interpretation makes some sense.

A hint on one point: watch the gender of those articles. In "si la sol" you must notice that if sol meant ground, it would be le sol.

There's other stuff like, "It doesn't pass through a mask" or as I said "It doesn't pass by way of a mask" (more clear if that's actually what that means). I still have trouble understanding this. I think it may be at the point where anyone would have trouble. I hope someone can share if they have a good idea of what all that means.

*7 I'm guessing that: since the infinitive form of the verb is used here it could be translated as "to cross", but that is also not an accurate translation. It might do it if one understands that as being impersonal in a poetic manner. Notice the following lines which also start with the infinitive – Parcourir, Revenir.

*8 http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/g/long.htm – explanation of "tout au long"

*9 I am yours. I didn't want to lose some of the flavor of the meaning by translating too much.