L'Apiculteur

Words: Alain Bashung/Jean Fauque

Music: Alain Bashung

Please read my notes on the word "api" below.

D'heure en heure

From hour to hour
L'apiculteur se meurt

The beekeeper is dying
Il a eu son heure

He has had his hour
Il a fait son beurre

He has made his butter
Api* apiculteur

Bee beekeeper

D'heure en heure

From hour to hour
L'apiculteur effleure

The beekeeper lightly touches
La fin du labeur

The end of his labor

Api apiculteur

Bee beekeeper

Dans une autre vie

In another life
Les marguerites s'effeuillent au ralenti

The daisies are blooming in slow motion
Personne n'est vainqueur

No one is the victor
Les proies les prédateurs

The prey the predators
Savourent le nectar

Savor the nectar
D'une pomme d'api

Of a lady apple
Api apiculteur

Bee beekeeper

L'heure c'est l'heure

The hour it's the hour
On n'est pas d'humeur

No one's in the mood
A verser des pleurs

To shed tears
Fières ont les ouvrières

Proud are the laborers
Le jour en tailleur

The day cross-legged
Le soir en guêpière

The night in a trap
Quand la mort vous susurre

When death whispers to you
Des serments veloutés

Velvet sermons
Que rien n'est moins sûr

That nothing is less certain
N'aura plus d'importance

Nor will be more important
Ni la chaleur

Neither the warmth
Ni les piqûres

Nor the stings

Api apiculteur

Bee beekeeper
Api apiculteur

Bee beekeeper

D'heure en heure

From hour to hour
L'apiculteur se meurt

The beekeeper is dying
Trouve l'interrupteur

Find the light switch
Une oasis

An oasis
Aux allées bordées d'épagneuls

At the paths edged with spaniels
Que la splendeur n'effraie plus

May the splendor not alarm you
Api apiculteur

Bee beekeeper
Api apiculteur

Bee beekeeper
Api apiculteur
Bee beekeeper

Api

Api
(Happy) ...


*The word "api" is just loaded in the french language.  In the song, I think what we have primarily is a sound play, "api apiculteur"... Api here comes from "abeille" or bee, and thus, the English sound play "bee beekeeper" works well in the translation. Nice!

Api ou pomme d'api is also a small, crisp apple, usually colored on one side only, called lady apple. More french etymology may be found here: http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/api

Pomme d'api is also a French children's nonsense rhyme. It has come to represent childhood, and is used as the name for nursery schools, children's shoe stores, toy companies, magazines, and plenty of cd's.

Pomme d'api is an operetta by Jacques Offenbach. 

But I would like to add another possibility: "Api" is the way a French person would say"happy"...  and this is what i hear when i listen to "L'Apiculteur". I don't know if that is what Alain and Jean had in mind when they wrote it, but it adds a depth of irony to the song that is out of this world: Happy! Happy!