Monday, June 28, 2010

Volutes




Music video realized by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, who directed several of Bashung's music videos. I love this video and would like to dedicate this translation to him. Do visit his exceptional photo site!

Words: Alain Bashung and Jean Fauque
Music: Alain Bashung

Vos luttes partent en fumée (vos luttes = volutes/ billowing smoke)
Your struggles leave in smoke (play on words = your billowing smoke parts in smoke)
Vos luttes font des nuées
Your struggles make swarms
Des nuées de scrupules
Swarms of scruples

Vos luttes partent en fumée 
Your stuggles leave in smoke
Vers des flûtes enchantées
Toward enchanted flutes
Et de cruelles espérances
And cruel hopes

Me lancent
(They) throw me
Des dagues et des lances
Spikes and lances
En toute innocence
In all innocence

Vos luttes partent en fumée
Your struggles leave in smoke
Sous les yeux embués
Under misted-up eyes
D’étranges libellules
Of strange dragonflies

Pour une grimace et un rictus
For a grimace and a rictus
De plus
And more
J’fais des heures sup’ 
I do supplemental hours

Je m’en donne de la peine
I give myself pain
Je cogite je m’agite
I cogitate I agitate
Je rejoue la scène
I replay the scene

J’cloue des clous sur des nuages
I nail nails on the clouds
Un marteau au fond du garage
A hammer in the back of the garage
J’cloue des clous sur des nuages
I nail nails on the clouds
Sans échafaudage
Without scaffolding

Et mon corps de se vouer
And my body dedicated
A des lunes surdouées
To super-gifted moons
Aux courbes souveraines
With sovereign curves

Pleines pleines
Full full

Vos luttes partent en fumée
Your struggles leave in smoke
Sous des soleils qui s’ignorent
Under suns that are ignored
Dor- dormez
Sleep sleep (wordplay: d'or, "gold sleep" or "sleep sleep mais"-"but")

Mes réponses allongées 
My allongated responses
Mes que dire
My what to say
Mes que faire
My what to do
Mais comment ça tient en l’air
But how this is kept in the air(!)

Ces deux hémisphères
These two hemispheres
Par quel mystère
By what mystery

J’cloue des clous sur des nuages
I nail nails on the clouds
Un marteau au fond du garage
A hammer in the back of the garage
J’cloue des clous sur des nuages
I nail nails on the clouds
Sans échafaudage
Without scaffolding

Vos luttes partent en fumée ...
Your struggles leave in smoke ... 

Smoke Art by Stoffel de Roover, wonderful! 

1 comment:

Kbbt said...

So yes, there's the "vos luttes" / "volutes" / "fumée" pun. Same thing for the "embués" eyes, they're "embués" because of the "fumée".

"Des nuées de scrupules" can also be heard as "Dénuées de scrupules", as in "without a single scrupule". So there are either lots of scrupules or none at all! (since a lot of people misuse the "scrupule" word in French, to mean the opposite of what it actually means, that's probably a clever way to let people hear what they prefer)

"J'cloue des clous sur des nuages" probably has an English pun as well, because "nuage" can be translated back as… "cloud". So you got "cloue", "clous" and "cloud". This album has other hidden English/French puns as well.

(The super-gifted, full-curved moons are female breasts, of course.)

I understand "Des clous sur des clous sur des nuages sans échafaudage" as building hopes upon hopes of hopes of nothing. He's just build a sand castle made out of nothing, he doesn't know how it's "kept in the air", but that'll do, for the moment.

Don't know what the struggles are about, though. Someone struggling and hardworking for something that's actually not worth it? Social commentary? Broken human relationships?

Thematically, it reminds me of Halo, by Depeche Mode…