Ruminations: La chanson des vieux amants

(The song of the long-time lovers.)

This song is a gift, of sorts, from E. I vaguely remember him saying something about how important it is for me to cultivate an appreciation for, and familiarity with, Italy's considerable repository of pop songs. Without even asking what I think about this pronouncement, he set about transferring numerous songs onto my laptop. By the time he was done, a look at my hard disk revealed scores of titles by Italian singers Franco Battiato and Carmen Consoli (whom E seems to have a rather unsettling obsession with) and three versions of this French song - La chanson des vieux amants.

It is a love song, of course. Not of the ideals of love. Nor of its sweet and peaceful fruition. It speaks of a love that is, for want of a better word, mature. Seasoned. Ripe. A love that has been repeatedly hit and twisted and kicked about by the ravages of passion and time and life. A relationship that has been again and again hewn and chipped and crushed by anger and bitterness and betrayals and human failings. But above all, it speaks of passion - blind, burning, endless. Of lovers who unbelievably would not and could not give up and let go. It speaks of a love that, stubbornly, would not die.

The lovers not only survived the pains and aches of relationship, but it seems that they even relished them (would one be allowed to remark here, "How spectacularly French!"?). There is more than a suggestion that a peaceful, sweet, loving existence between lovers is dry and constricting compared to a mad, passion-driven and tempestuous relationship. The last verse of the song rhetorically asks:

"Mais n'est-ce pas le pire piège
Que vivre en paix pour des amants?"

Is it not the most hideous entrapment;
for lovers to live quietly in peace?

***

As the movie title says: Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? What's with love anyway? A definition of "love" posted by Rara Avis includes words like affection, attraction, romance, passion and desire. Could romantic love inspire amorous passion that never dies? Or could it all be one big fraud, reinforced by Hollywood-dominated modern popular culture? According to The Economist, romantic love is just some kind of an addiction. Literally.

I'm often both touched and envious when reading snippets of other people's love life (e.g. epicurious's), but sometimes I wonder: is love really what they make it out to be? Is it really worth our time?

***

While La chanson des vieux amants was originally made popular by French singing legend Jacques Brel - and later re-interpreted and re-sung by various artistes - I prefer the rendition by Maurane the best. It's the most haunting and and the most compelling (click here to listen).

What follows is my very own liberal attempt at translating the song into English, for which I crave indulgence, if not outright patience. But if your patience quickly wears thin, you may want to check out the more elegant and definitely more sing-able English rendition by Des de Moor. (Les francophones parmi vous peuvent donner un coup d'oeil au texte originel en bas.)

Enjoy.

The Song of the Long-time Lovers

Of course, we had our share of whirlwinds
Two decades of love, a love depraved
A thousand times, you packed your things
A thousand times, I ran from you
Every piece of furniture,
in this cribless chamber,
remembers explosions
of old tempests
Nothing remained as they were
You have lost the taste for water
And I, that for conquests

But my love!
My sweet, my tender, my wonderful love!
From early dawn 'till day's end, my love!
I love you still, you know I love you.

I know all your magic tricks
And you know all my spells and charms
You've saved me from many a trap
I have lost you many a time
Of course you took some other lovers
After all, you had to pass the time
The body always needs to feel triumphant
But in the end, right in the end
It seems that we must have some special talent
To grow older without ever maturing

Oh my love!
My sweet, my tender, my wonderful love!
From early dawn 'till day's end, my love!
I love you still, you know I love you.

More and more time courts us
More and more it torments us
But is it not the most hideous entrapment;
For lovers to live quietly in peace?
Of course you cry a little less sooner
And I break down a little bit later
We become less guarded with our secrets
We rely less and less on chance
And we don't always go with the flow
But we still wage these tender wars...

Oh my love!
My sweet, my tender, my wonderful love!
From early dawn 'till day's end, my love!
I love you still, you know I love you.

La chanson des vieux amants

Bien sûr nous eûmes des orages
Vingt ans d'amour c'est l'amour fol
Mille fois tu pris ton bagage
Mille fois je pris mon envol
Et chaque meuble se souvient
Dans cette chambre sans berceau
Des éclats des vieilles tempêtes
Plus rien ne ressemblait à rien
Tu avais perdu le goût de l'eau
Et moi celui de la conquête...

Mais mon amour!
Mon doux mon tendre mon merveilleux amour!
De l'aube claire jusqu'à la fin du jour!
Je t'aime encore tu sais je t'aime.

Moi, je sais tous tes sortilèges
Tu sais tous mes envoûtements
Tu m'as gardé de piège en piège
Je t'ai perdue de temps en temps
Bien sûr tu pris quelques amants
Il fallait bien passer le temps
Il faut bien que le corps exulte
Finalement finalement
Il nous fallut bien du talent
Pour être vieux sans être adultes

Ô mon amour!
Mon doux mon tendre mon merveilleux amour!
De l'aube claire jusqu'à la fin du jour!
Je t'aime encore tu sais je t'aime.

Et plus le temps nous fait cortège
Et plus le temps nous fait tourment
Mais n'est-ce pas le pire piège
Que vivre en paix pour des amants?
Bien sûr tu pleures un peu moins tôt
Je me déchire un peu plus tard
Nous protégeons moins nos mystères
On laisse moins faire le hasard
On se méfie du fil de l'eau
Mais c'est toujours la tendre la guerre...

Ô mon amour!
Mon doux mon tendre mon merveilleux amour!
De l'aube claire jusqu'à la fin du jour!
Je t'aime encore tu sais je t'aime...

Comments

Woooww!!! I am contemplating using Typepad for my entries about Kelantan, coz I rather move Maine-Ideas to typepad and blogspot is just used for Kelantan stuff. Heerrgghh, the flesh is weak still.
Your Halloween Party entry, mind blowing!

Posted by: Maine | November 27, 2004 at 10:01 PM

Hi there Maine!

I'm not sure if I understood you very well. You want to use Blogspot for your Kelantan-related stuff and put the rest on Typepad or vice-versa?

Anyway, maybe I can share some stuff on my observations on Typepad & Blogspot:

COST:
Blogspot: Free
Typepad: US$4.95 - US$14.95 per month (But the basic package which costs US$4.95 should suffice for most people) But if you convert into RM and calculate on an annual basis, it does add up to quite a bit.

USER-FRIENDLINESS
Blogspot: Demands more than just a nodding facility with html
Typepad: Considerably user-friendly; though I'm getting irritated by their recently installed interface which suffers from the occasional hiccups.

FEATURES
Blogspot: Cannot have photo album (though this may be possible with some html acrobatics); Cannot archive by topics (but again this can be done manually, again with some html acrobatics);
Typepad: "Plus" package allows photo album and "excerpt" posting which reduces clutter on webpage; Can easily and effortlessly archive by topics;

SUPPORT
And of course,Typepad, being a paid service, provides better user support.

(Maybe I should blog on this ;) )

Other Typepad/Blogspot users may want to add other comments.

Hope this helps.

Posted by: fazu | November 28, 2004 at 08:13 PM

Oh and I forgot, Typepad also allows access to visitor stats to your website. Basically, you can see how many times your blogsite has been visited, where it has been accessed from. Which is quite cool, I think.

Posted by: fazu | November 28, 2004 at 08:46 PM

It depends Fazu. On individual preference, and the couple's dynamics. Whether a "peaceful, sweet, loving existence between lovers is dry and constricting compared to a mad, passion-driven and tempestuous relationship". I don't know, but I would have thought that most love affairs alternate between the sweet and the passion because it isn't the love that defines the relationship, but the lovers. I suppose, the love for your lover would soar and wane according to how you feel and this is affected by how you perceive and live your life at any moment.

I think love is worth it, Fazu. As with anything in life that you believe in :)

PS. Thanks for introducing this verson of the song. You're right, it's truly haunting.

Posted by: epicurious | November 28, 2004 at 11:45 PM