Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Tout le monde - Carla Bruni (English translation)

This is a very rough draft. I welcome all suggestions/corrections/comments. I've put the French in brackets where I'm not certain of my interpretation, or where the English differs markedly from the French.
Original lyrics found here.

everyone is a strange sort of person
and everyone's got a mixed up soul [l'âme emmêlée]
everyone has a childhood that hums [l'enfance qui ronronne]
deep inside a forgotten pocket
everyone has dream remnants
and devasted corners of lives
one day everyone looked for something [tout le monde a cherché quelque chose un jour]
but everyone found nothing [tout le monde ne l'a pas trouvé]
but everyone found nothing

everyone should demand from the authorities
a law that casts out our solitude [une loi contre toute notre solitude]
so that no one is forgotten
and that no one is forgotten

everyone has one life that is passing
but no one remembers
i see those who fold, and even break it [j'en vois qui la plient et même qui la cassent]
and those who don't even see it [et j'en vois qui ne la voient même pas]
and those who don't even see it

everyone should demand from the authorities
a law that casts out our solitude
so that no one is forgotten
and that no one is forgotten

everyone is a strange sort of person
and everyone's got a mixed up soul
everyone has a childhood that echoes
deep inside a forgotten hour
deep inside a forgotten hour

"everyone" --> "each of us"? which is better? it would emphasize the collective ...

5 comments:

Is said...

And everyone's got a mixed up soul [l'âme emmêlée] - messed up

[...]

one day everyone looked for something [tout le monde a cherché quelque chose un jour] - everyone searched for something once
but everyone found nothing [tout le monde ne l'a pas trouvé] - and everyone didn't find it

[...]

everyone should demand from the authorities - we should all request from the authorities
a law that casts out our solitude [une loi contre toute notre solitude] - a law against all our solitude

[...]

everyone has one life that is passing - everyone has a single life that's passing
but no one remembers - but everyone doesn't remember it
i see those who fold it, and even break it [j'en vois qui la plient et même qui la cassent]

[...]

This is just a suggestion.

I think 'everyone' fits better even instead of 'nobody' because in french it's the same, 'tout le monde' makes no sense in negative sentences, but it's still kept that way because of the structure, and because it sounds more poetic.

Chungwan said...

Thank you for all your translation, correction and contribution. I think the translation you two did is very beautiful. : )

NoaBaak said...

i love carla bruni and her voice though i do not quite understand in spite of 3 years of living in paris...

so i thank you for the efforts that make me taste a bit of this and that.

thanks.

noa (www.micegrey.com)

AshleyNichol said...

I heard the album is mostly French but has some hybrid Italian as well. Perhaps that is why the translation is difficult. I was looking for a translation of this song when I stumbled upon your blog. Also I read somewhere she mixes folk and Chanson French. I do not speak any French so I can't be sure but again I hope it helps your translation!

Walter Bishop's Apprentice said...

Whoops, guess who hasn't checked this blog in a while...

Is - I have continued to study French and with the perspective I've since gained, I do agree with some of your suggestions. Thank you! I did take some poetic license in my first effort, though.

Thanks everyone else for the nice comments. I honestly wasn't expecting people to be reading this thing.