Brassens -- In the Forest of My Heart

Here's goes nothing -- don't ask me to save the meter and rhyme. I'll try to translate this love song with an eye on idiomatic expressions rendered at least comprehensible and maybe even give it a little poetry.

It's a very poetic, sexy, earth song. It's about the dark forest of a man's heart and especially how his friends are there for him through thick and thin, good women and bad, marriages and death. It's ironic and imaginative and down-to-earth and beautiful in it's very very simple lyrics. It plays with language in a beautiful way.

Of course, poor flat-footed Google tried to just be accurate, but even botched that, because it has a logic that is about the heart, not the head.

Reminds me of the well-known Pascal quotation: "Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connais point." Even this is hard to translate, as it plays off the fact that there are TWO verbs in French for "knowing" -- one is a scientific brain logical knowing of "reason" (savoir) and one is a gutteral, physical, intuitive, knowing of the heart (connaitre) and this says exactly what that dichotomy is all about. "The heart has its reasons which the head will never know." or more precisely "The heart has its reasons that Reason knows nothing of. "

Bois -- means wood like you find in a lumberyard, but also means woods and forest; also the Bois de Vincennes is a famous park in Paris and a neighborhood, so you would not translate it, but leave it as is.

Copains -- comrades, buddies, pals

Cours -- it means the courtyard, but in this sense he's talking about the place he grew up and played with his friends in the street. It says all that in one short word and again, courtyard in American English sounds very proper and fancy but French courtyards and how French buildings are built around a courtyard are common and not fancy to them -- it just doesn't translate.

Il m'accompagne a la maire -- this means literally, "Every time I go to Town Hall," but of course, it means something much more important in French. That's where you get married. So it's saying, every time I get married, my friends are there for me. Again, the ironic feeling it suggests is, "EVERY time?" and makes the listener think, "How many times has this wild guy gotten married?'' No mention of any woman in the lyrics, makes the honored and important place of his male friends all the more keen. They walk with him to every wedding and there's a sense they know he's once again walking into a disaster ... but they are always there for him.

Chaque fois que je meurs fidelement -- this means literally, "Every time I die, faithfully, my friends follow my casket to the cemetary." But of course, the joke and the irony is saying "EACH time I die." What the hell does that mean? Don't we die only once and hope our friends are still around to follow our coffin to the grave? Yes, so that's his point. His friends are so steadfast that whether it be the real BIG death or other failures he suffers, they are ALWAYS there for him.



In The Forest Of My Heart

In the forest of my heart
deep in the Bois de Clamart
just as small flowers grow there
my friends stand by me there
In the forest of my heart

At the end of my street
my pals know me
and know my wild reputation
and know my wild heart
At the end of my street

In the Bois de Vincennes
deep in the woods
just as small flowers grow there
friends who grew up with me
are still there for me
in the forest of my heart

When there's no more wine in the flask
at my table
my friends are happy to drink my water
they stay to drink water
they don't need my wine

In the Bois d'Meudon
deep in the woods
just as small flowers grow there
friends who grew up with me
are still there for me
in the forest of my heart

My friends are there as I walk to be wed
wed at the Town Hall
every time I marry
my friends stand by me

In the Bois de Saint-Cloud
deep in the woods
just as small flowers grow there
friends who grew up with me
are still there for me
in the forest of my heart

Every time I die, my friends stand by me faithfully
they are there faithfully
following my casket to the grave
to the grave
my friends are there.


-------------------------------------------------


Of course, the words are lovely and simple, but the most incredible thing is the music. His voice is rough, dark and haunting. Very south of France, very full of life and pain and sorrow, so the songs are just beautiful in their wisdom and simplicity.