La Chanson des Vieux Amants (Jacques Brel)

Old Lovers, taken by me

I learned this song in back in the 1960's when I was a teenager, from a record I had of Jacques Brel. He was very popular in NYC at the time. There was a musical called "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris" that was a hit on Broadway. Judy Collins also covered this song on one of her records.

I played the record over and over again to get the words (this was way before the internet. It would have been so much easier now). I performed it for a modern dance show at my High School. I had only a vague idea then what this song was about.

Now that I am older, it resonates so much more strongly for me....
 

Here are the French lyrics, with my English translation :

"La Chanson De Vieux Amants" by Jacques Brel

 

(The Song of Old Lovers) English translation by me

 

1) Bien sûr, nous eûmes des orages (Of course, we have had our storms) 

Vingt ans d`amour, c`est l`amour fol (Lovers for 20 years, it is a crazy love) 

Mille fois tu pris ton bagage (A thousand times you have packed your bags) 

Mille fois je pris mon envol (A thousand times, I have taken flight) 

Et chaque meuble se souvient (And each piece of furniture remembers) 

Dans cette chambre sans berceau (in this room without a cradle) 

Des éclats des vieilles tempêtes (the claps of old thunderstorms) 

Plus rien ne ressemblait à rien (Nothing is the same anymore)   

Tu avais perdu le goût de l`eau (You have even lost the taste for water) 

Et moi celui de la conquête (And me only the taste for conquest) 

 

{Refrain:}

Mais mon amour (But my love) 

Mon doux, mon tendre, mon merveilleux amour (My sweet, my tender, my marvelous love) 

De l`aube claire jusqu`à la fin du jour (from the clear dawn until the end of the day) 

Je t`aime encore tu sais je t`aime (I love you still, you know I love you) 

 

2) Moi, je sais tous tes sortilèges (Me, I know all your sorceries) 

Tu sais tous mes envoûtements (You know all my magic tricks) 

Tu m`as gardé de pièges en pièges (you have kept me safe from trap to trap) 

Je t`ai perdue de temps en temps (I have lost you from time to time) 

Bien sûr tu pris quelques amants (Of course, you have taken a few lovers) 

Il fallait bien passer le temps (You surely have to pass the time) 

Il faut bien que le corps exulte (The body must know rapture) 

Finalement finalement (Finally finally) 

Il nous fallut bien du talent (It took us a lot of talent) 

Pour être vieux sans être adultes (To become old without becoming adults 

 

{Refrain}

 

3) Et plus le temps nous fait cortège  (And the more time marches on) 

Et plus le temps nous fait tourment (The more time torments us) 

Mais n`est-ce pas le pire piège (but isn't it the worst trap) 

Que vivre en paix pour des amants ( for lovers to live in peace?) 

Bien sûr tu pleures un peu moins tôt (Of course you cry a little less easily)  

Je me déchire un peu plus tard (I tear myself apart a little more slowly) 

Nous protégeons moins nos mystères (We protect our secrets less and less ) 

On laisse moins faire le hasard (We take fewer chances) 

On se méfie du fil de l`eau (we don't trust the stream of water) or (we no longer go with the flow)

Mais c`est toujours la tendre guerre (but it is always a tender war) 

 

{Refrain}