Someone mentioned this song on the forum of royet.org...

[montagnarde1793]

...And I thought I would share it with you all, since, even though it's about the bicentennial of the Revolution (and of course it's been nearly twenty years since the bicentennial), it's still quite relevant at present. I've provided both the original words and my own translation. I trust you'll find it sufficiently depressing. :/

J'ai vu des ducs j'ai vu des princes
Des barons des comtes des rois
Des marquises à la taille mince
Qui dansaient au son des hautbois
Dans des châteaux pleins de lumière
Où les fêtes resplendissaient
Où l'on chantait "il pleut bergère"
Dans le velours et dans la soie

I've seen dukes, I've seen princes;
Barons, counts, kings;
Marquises with slender waists
Who danced to the sound of oboes
In châteaux full of light
Where celebrations glittered;
Where they sang "il pleut bergère" [Fabre's song about sherpherdesses, as you'll likely recall]
In velvets and silks.

Mais dans sa chaumière
Mais dans sa chaumière
Je n'ai pas vu pauvre Martin
Pauvre Martin pauvre misère
Avec sa femme et ses gamins

But in his cottage,
But in his cottage,
I didn't see poor Martin;
Poor Martin, poor poverty (misery)
With his wife and children.

J'ai tremblé devant la colère
Des va-nu-pieds des paysans
Renversant l'ordre millénaire
Dans la fureur et dans le sang
J'ai vu la terreur apparaître
Les châteaux partir en fumée
Les délateurs régner en maîtres
Dans une France sans pitié

I trembled before the anger
Of the va-nu-pieds [barefoot ones], of the peasants
Overthrowing the order of a thousand years
In fury and in blood.
I saw the terror appear,
The châteaux go up in smoke
The informers reign as masters
In a France without mercy.

Mais dans sa chaumière
Mais dans sa chaumière
Je n'ai pas vu pauvre Martin
Pauvre Martin pauvre misère
Tremblant de froid mourant de faim

But in his cottage,
But in his cottage,
I didn't see poor Martin;
Poor Martin, poor poverty (misery),
Trembling with cold, dying of hunger.

J'ai frémi pour ces grandes dames
Ces beaux seigneurs si émouvants
Qui montraient tant de grandeur d'âme
De noblesse de sentiments
Avant que leurs têtes grimacent
Au bout des piques acérées
Agitées par la populace
Des sans-culottes avinés

I shivered for those great ladies,
Those fine lords so moving,
Who showed such greatness of soul,
Such nobility of sentiments
Before their heads grimaced
At the end of the sharp pikes
Waved by the rabble
Of wine-soaked sans-culottes.

Mais dans sa chaumière
Mais dans sa chaumière
Je n'ai pas vu pauvre Martin
Pauvre Martin pauvre misère
Creusant la terre de ses mains

But in his cottage,
But in his cottage,
I didn't see poor Martin;
Poor Martin, poor poverty (misery),
Digging the earth with his hands.

Deux siècles après quatre-vingt-neuf
Il fallait oser l'inventer
A la télé on fait du neuf
En acquittant la royauté
Deux siècles après quatre-vingt-neuf
D'autres seigneurs veillent au grain
Et toi qui vivais comme un bœuf
Ce sont tes maîtres que l'on plaint

Two centuries after eighty-nine
It was necessary to dare to invent him.
On TV they make [old news] new
By acquitting the monarchy.
Two centuries after eighty-nine,
Other lords watch over the grain;
And you, who lived like a steer,
Your masters are the ones they pity.

A six pieds sous terre
Ton bicentenaire
Ils l'ont enterré bel et bien
Pauvre Martin pauvre misère
C'est toujours le peuple qu'on craint
Pauvre Martin pauvre misère
C'est toujours le peuple qu'on craint

Six feet under:
Your bicentennial,
They have effectively buried it.
Poor Martin, poor poverty (misery);
It's still the People they fear.
Poor Martin, poor poverty (misery);
It's still the People they fear.

...I'm afraid it's not very eloquent in translation, but you should be able to get the jist of it. >__>

 

Comments

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

And now I am even more depressed. This is greatly displeasing. >__>

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. D: At least we know we're not the only ones on the planet to recognize the phenomenon... :/ (It was in reference to that post on that horrible movie on Charlotte Corday, if you wanted to know. You can't deny it's relevent. >.>)

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

It's very relevent. And still very depressing. >.>

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I know, I'm sorry. Everything I can think to post on seems to be more or less depressing. >__>

[josiana.livejournal.com]

:( Thank you for the translation. That is depressingly relevant.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, though it's not the world's greatest translation. >.> I wish it wasn't so relevant, but there it is. That's why I had to post on it. *sighs*

[josiana.livejournal.com]

It's okay. ^^; We get the idea. Um. ;_; I'm sure it will be obsolete soon. Really.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I do wish it, but I'm not particularly sanguine about the chances of that happening any time soon. D:

[josiana.livejournal.com]

;__; We can hope.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Yes, there's still that, at least.

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

;________________; God. Why is it so true?

Thank you for translating. ♥

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I wish I knew. It's truly, if you really think about it and all its repercussions, one of the more depressing things out there. ;__;

You're quite welcome. :/