Thursday, June 30, 2011

Ça cache quekchose


Words: Boris Bergman
Music: Alain Bashung

The video is cute but the sound is lousy. For a better quality listen, 
I give you the collection of Oldisound, whom we hope will live forever:
http://oldisound.musicblog.fr/1532366/Alain-Bashung-Ca-cache-quekchose-1981/
Vive Oldi! We love you. xoxoxooxox


Tout est redevenu étrangement calme
Everything's become strangely calm
Les fakirs traversent dans les clous
The fakirs cross at the crosswalks
Tu m'as dit vas-y beau blond
You said to me, go ahead you beautiful blond
Les lave-vaisselle ont plus de marques au cou
The dishwashers don't have marks on their necks anymore (marques=brands)
Ma bignole lit Rock et Folk
My concierge reads Rock and Folk
Ses bigoudis vont friser l'incident
Her curlers are going to curl the incident
Elle montre plus ses dentelles grises
She isn't showing her gray lace anymore
En hurlant vive les sixties
Yelling, Long live the 60s

Ça cache quekchose
She's hiding somethin'*
Je l'entends plus crier mon nom
I no longer hear her cry my name
Ça cache quekchose
She's hiding somethin'
Attends-toi à des distorsions
Wait for the distorsions

Le lion de la Metro exagère
The lion of the Metro exaggerates
Il veut plus bouffer du Mayer
He no longer wants to eat from the Mayer (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
Bigophone on s'entend bien
Telephone we understand each other well
Plus de faux-jeton je peux mettre le mien
No more two-face I can put forth my own

Ça cache quekchose
She's hiding somethin'
Je l'entends plus crier mon nom
I no longer hear her cry my name
Ça cache quekchose
She's hiding somethin'
Attends-toi à des distorsions
Wait for the distorsions

Il fait lourd l'homme-poisson se les caille
It's heavy the fish-man's freezing his balls off
Poupée ça me dit rien qui vaille
Doll this tells me nothing of value
Et la grosse du Président
And the fat wife of the President**
Tu crois qu'elle nous porte des collants
You think she's gonna wear tights for us?

Ça cache quekchose
She's hiding somethin'
Je l'entends plus crier mon nom
I no longer hear her cry my name
Ça cache quekchose
She's hiding somethin'
Attends-toi à des distorsions
Wait for the distortions

Ça cache quekchose...
She's hiding somethin'...

*Ça cache quekchose is actually "That's hiding something" or perhaps
better in English "Something is being hidden". The first sounds lousy in
English and the second ruins the song; so because he's basically talking
about a woman, I went with "She's hiding somethin'."

**There's a lot of word play with "big" in this song. There bignole for
"bagnole" or car, bigoudis (curlers), distorsions (distortions), bouffe (eat
but really to stuff), bigophone (actual slang for telephone), il fait lourd
(that's heavy), la grosse du Président (the fat wife of the President). And
with all of that bigness, she still she can't hide! :>>)))




The B-side

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

j'me permet de signaler une petite erreur :bignole en argot ancien c'est la concierge, la gardienne d'immeuble.si tu relis le texte tu verras tout de suite que ça colle mieux.a part ça ,super ton blog, partager un artiste aussi difficile a traduire c'est aussi du grand art

Laura Tattoo said...

merci, tu es cher, o anonyme. xoxoxooxoxox