Hélène Martin - Gypsy

Original Title: "Tzigane"
Text: Pierre Seghers
Year: 1975

The heart is made of thousand strings
That all break at the same time
It makes an horrendous noise
Then it's never heard again
In the forest, it's a big tree
Birds sing in it
Wood for tables are made out of it
Dogs sharpen their teeth against it
We could well say that the gypsies
Make the lost hearts live again
It's a story for the ladies
Let's not mention it again, let's not mention it again.

The heart is made of thousand strings
That breaks all a the same time
It makes an horrendous noise
Then it's never heard again
We could well say that the gypsies
Make the lost hearts live again
It's a story for the ladies
Let's not mention it again, let's not mention it again.

It's a story for the ladies
Let's not mention it again, let's not mention it again.

Charles Aznavour - On my life

Original title: "Sur ma vie"
Year: 1956

On my life
One day, I've sworn to you
To love you until the last day of my days
And the same word,
Very soon, had to,
Unite us in front of God and men

On my life, I have sworm to you
That this bond will hold until the end of Times
This is how we were living
Drunk with passion
And my heart wanted to offer you my name

Close to the organs which were singing
In front of God who was praying
Happy, I was waiting for you
But the organs went silent
And God disappeared
Because you did not come

On my life....
I've sworm to you that my heart
Will never beat for another heart
And everything is lost
Because it is not beating anymore
But it's crying for my disappointed love

On my life...
One day, I've sworn to you
To love you until the last day of my days
And even now
I'll hold my oath
In spite of the hurt you inflicted me

On my life...
Honey...
I will love you.

Live version:
Version of Les Compagnons de la Chanson:

Jean Ferrat - Will a bird song remain?

Original Title: "Restera-t-il un chant d'oiseau"
Text: Claude Delécluse
Year: 1962

What will remain on earth fifty years from now?
We are poisoning the rivers, the oceans
We are eating hydrocarbons, and what else?
The Rhône carries along mercury, dead fishes.

For the children of the new times
Will a bird song remain?

The world lost its compass. What did it win?
Beaches blackened by oil to go swimming
The atom will rule over earth, like a lord
What will we do with it, it's a matter that scares me.

For the children of the new times
Will a bird song remain?
As soon as the misfortune of men is less big
Already the apples are rotting of the new times
Children, children, the earth is round, shout louder
So that the world wakes up, if it's not dead

For the children of the new times
Will a bird song remain?

Jean Arnulf - Day after day

Original Title:"Jour après jour"
Text: Martine Merri
Year: 1964

My life tears itself off page by page
Where is the time I've lost?
There is nothing left but images
Faded pictures, waned laughs
Drowned at the bottom of some marshes
And no one held them back

Regrets pile up one by one
The old frenzy is erased
I look deep in my mirror
The wrinkles of the last summer
The seasons pass one after the other
All my hopes have worn themselves out

Day after day, the days come back
I've been, I'll be, I am
Asleep at the hollow of the weeks
I've lost the taste of rain
And the flavour of the chrysanthemums
Sometimes wake me up at night

One by one the doors slam
Shut on a thousand and four loves
Nineteen sixty and four
I keep track day to day
Of the day when I would have to fight
To keep my last forever

I've climbed the steps one by one
Which leads to eternity
On the way, I've had feathers torn out
Who will be able to reattach them?
I'd like wings and the moon
To travel the other half

Gribouille - To die tomorrow

Original Title: "Mourir demain"
Year: 1965

I'm going to die tomorrow
At the station's post
Shot by a train
At the field of the black rails

I'm going to die tomorrow
Of your last smile
And of too much sorrow
And of seeing you leave

I'm going to die tomorrow
At the gates of the town
Your name in each hand
And it'll be easy

I'm going to die tomorrow
Of your last trip
And of too much sorrow
Which costs me a wrecking

I'm going to die and that's fine
And I'm not mad at you anymore
Others died for nothing
I, from losing you

And I die this morning
But you have to think
That it does not change anything
You, you are going on holiday

Jean Ferrat - My country was beautiful

Original title: "Mon pays était beau"
Year:1980

My country was beautiful
Of a wild beauty
And man, horse, and wood, and tool
Lived in harmony
Up to that great havoc
Noone can simply live here anymore

It's raining on that village
With dark alleys
And nothing else moves
The silence settles at the feet of our bed
Oh silence
Tender and harrowing violin
Joyous brass band
Cover us
Of the big coat of night
With your giant wings

My country was beautiful
Of a wild beauty
And man, horse, and wood, and tool
Lived in harmony
Up to that great havoc
Noone can simply live here anymore

Marc & André - Anouilh - The paths of love

Original Title: "Les chemins de l'amour"
Text: Jean Anouilh
Music: Francis Poulenc
Year: 1940 (written), 1987 (album release)
Very good translation with not much changes made by Richard Stokes can be found here.

Paths leading to the sea
Have kept from our passing
Some flowers with their petals plucked off
And the echo, under their trees,
Of our two clear laughs
Alas! Of the days of happiness
Radiant joy flewn away,
I go without finding back any trace
In my heart

Paths of my love
I'm still looking for you
Lost paths, you are no more
And your echoes are deaf

Paths of despair
Paths of memory
Paths of the first day
Divine paths of love

If I have to forget her one day
Life erasing all things,
I want in my heart that a memory
Rests stronger than the other love,
The memory of the path
Where trembling and all overcome,
One day I've felt your hands burn on me

Paths of my love
I'm still looking for you
Lost paths you are no more
And your echos are deaf

Paths of despair
Paths of memory
Paths of the first day
Divine paths of love

La Tordue - Lola

Year: 1998

During the free-for-all²
I've placed your hand in my paw
And gripped so hard
Against my palm your heart beats
The wind of madness
Slowly towards the river
Pushes me into its bed
The folds of the sheet are the sea
Where from waves to foam
My vague heart fills itself with her
When the yards at the topmast
Beat the sky with their wings
- And while rounding Good-Hope
It's again
It's Lola from Valencia
It's her body
Which is dancing in my head

In this loneliness
Populated with so many stars
The heart obsolete
And the hands on the canvas
This song is coming back to me
From the country I come from
It's a nameless country
It's your heart on mine
This song it's Lola
Who sang it to me one evening
In the hollow of that ear here
Which does not recover since
It's again
It's Lola from Valencia
It's her body
Which is dancing in my head

It's crazy how poetry
Can take us for a ride
Towards incredible port of alls
Where the ink of the words throws us
The flowers of evil a page
Having invited me to the journey
It's your perfumes I'm picking up
Sailor on the sly in your blouse
And I pinch myself to know
When I wake up by your side
If that pink and black jewel
Was just a dream washed ashore
But it's your turn to wake up
My lady of heart my beauty
Did you sleep well, my love?
Oh you my Lola for real.

² little play on words with "grabbing/fist fighting event/chaos" in french

Georges Brassens - The non marriage proposal

Original title: "La non demande en mariage"
Year: 1966

My love, I beg you, let's not place
Under Cupidon's throat
his own arrow
So many lovers have tried it
Who, with their happiness, have paid
That sacrilege...

I have the honour of not asking for your hand
Let's not engrave our names at the bottom of a parchment

Let's leave the field clear for the bird
We'll both be prisonners on parole
To hell with the mistresses chef
Who attach the hearts at the handle
Of the pans!

I have the honour of not asking for your hand
Let's not engrave our names at the bottom of a parchment

Venus is getting old, often
She is losing her latin in front of
The roastingpan
For no price, me, would I want to
Pluck the leaves off
The daisy

I have the honour of not asking for your hand
Let's not engrave our names at the bottom of a parchment

It may seem easy
To put away, at the bottom of a jar
filled with jam
The pretty forbidden fruit
But it's cooked, it has lost
its natural taste

I have the honour of not asking for your hand
Let's not engrave our names at the bottom of a parchment

One takes off quite a few charms
While unveiling too much the secrets
Of Mélusine
The ink of the sweet notes grow pale
Quickly between the pages
of the cookbooks

I have the honour of not asking for your hand
Let's not engrave our names at the bottom of a parchment

I have no need of an handmaid
And of the housekeeping and its care
I excuse you
As an enternal bride
As the lady of my thoughts
Always I think about

I have the honour of not asking for your hand
Let's not engrave our names at the bottom of a parchment

Serge Gainsbourg - Watering mouth

Original title: "L'eau à la bouche"
Year: 1959

Listen to my voice, listen to my prayer
Listen to my beating heart, let yourself go
Please don't be shy
When my mouth waters

I want you trusting, I sense you captive
I want you docile, I sense you fearful
Please don't be shy
When my mouth waters

Let yourself be with the current
Carried in the torrent's bed
And in mine
If it pleases you
Let's leave the shore
Let's go adrift
I'll take you gently and without restraint
What are you afraid of, now don't have any fear

Please don't be shy
When my mouth waters

This night next to me, you'll come lie down
Yes I'll be calm, I'll know how to wait for you
And for you to not be frightened
See, I'm only taking your mouth

Jacques Douai - Let me live

Original Title: "Laisse-moi vivre"
Text: Pierre Seghers
Year: 1971

Where do you come back from, Love,
Where do you come back from?
I was following the time which is running
Faster than us
Faster than us

What a pearly skin, Love,
What a pearly skin!
I polished myself the whole day
At the edge of a sword
At the edge of a sword.

Made you so cold, Love,
Made you so cold.
Now my fingers are numb,
And the rest as well
And the rest as well

But in your beautiful eyes, Love,
But in your beautiful eyes
I know that shines always,
The flame of the fire,
The flame of the fire.

The fire soaks the swords
The fire has the smell of fire.
Forget it
I was wrong
I come straight back from the skies.

Where do you come back from, Love,
Where do you come back from?
I was following the time which is running
Faster than us
Faster than us

Leny Escudéro - For a fling

Original Title: "Pour une amourette"
Year: 1962

For a fling
Which was passing this way
I've lost my mind
And then here I am
For a fling
Which was setting there
For a fling
Who was reaching her arms out to me
For a fling
Who told me: Come.
I believed that a celebration
Was dancing in my hands
For a fling
Who was making happiness
I've run away from the planet
To follow her elsewhere
Then I told myself
You are at the end of the way
You can stop there
Finally rest
And when love
Drowned in her eyes
I believed that I had just
Invented the blue sky

For a fling
Who had smiled at me
I made myself honest
I changed my life
For a fling
Who knew how to love me
For a fling
Who believed she loved me
For a fling
Eternal love
Lasts the time of a party
The time of a sun
And my fling
Who was too pretty
Towards other conquests
Soon left again
The first farewell
Has kept its secret
She took away love
Leaving me the regrets
But our old spring
Blossomed again in the distance
Close against my heart
Already it was telling me

A little fling
You just have to take it as it comes
One day, two maybe
A long time sometimes
Go dry your tears
A new love
Is watching and disarms
The sorrows of a single day
A small fling
One day will come back
To turn your head
To open its arms
Sing the romance
Of some pretty dream
And I already know
That you'll say yes
Then loves
for you will blossom again
You will love again
At the pretty season
A small fling
Is never too pretty
When you know in advance
How long life lasts

Michèle Arnaud's version:

Monique Morelli - Pierre de Ronsard - Sweetheart, let's go and see if the rose

Text: Pierre de Ronsard
Year: 1978
Original title: "Mignonne, allons voir si la rose"

Sweetheart*, let's go and see if the rose
Which had opened this morning
Its crimson dress under the sun,
Has not lost this vespers²,
the folds of its scarlet dress,
And its complexion alike to yours.

Alas! See how in such a short space (of time),
Sweetheart, she has right there
Alas, alas, let her beauties fall
Oh really cruel mother Nature,
As such a flower only lasts,
from the morning to the evening!

So if you believe me, sweetheart,
While your age blossoms,
In it's greenest novelty,
Pick up, pick up your youth:
Like to this flower, the old age
Will make your beauty tarnished

* Cute one
²Evening between dusk and the dark of the night
Mignarda, Luth duo version

La Rue Kétanou - My fault that is yours

Original title: "Ma faute à toi"
Year: 2003

I need still and always
I need to enter in a woman's home
To come out at daybreak
With a bit less flames
In the eyes
When I look at you
Because our love that belongs to us
I'm the only one who keeps it

I need to enter in a woman's home
In someone else's home other than yours
You who lost my flame
My flame which was for you
I need to forget about you
To not recognize you
Everywhere I go
I need to be reborn

I need to live
To live in front of myself
Those who love me follow me
I know, you, you stay there
I need to love
I can't do anything else
I need to love
And it's not your fault

It's my fault that is yours
You who is too beautiful
You you are too beautiful for me
And the beauties are cruel
For those who want them
For those who do not have them
For those who are alone
For those who do not know
For those who walk for hours
And are going nowhere
For those who drink
For those who do not sleep
For those who sing
Who sing
For those who sing
Who sing for you

I need to live
To live in front of myself
Those who love me follow me
I know, you, you stay there
I need to love
I can't do anything else
I need to love
And it's not your fault

It's my fault that is yours
You who is too beautiful
You you are too beautiful for me
And the beauties are cruel
For those who want them
For those who do not have them
For those who are alone
For those who do not know
For those who walk for hours
And are going nowhere
For those who drink
For those who do not sleep
For those who sing
Who sing
For those who sing
Who sing for you

Leny Escudero - The journey

Original Title: "Le voyage"
Year: 1974

(Him) Tell me, is it for now?
You always say "Wait"
And that we have plenty of time
To make the journey

(Her): It's true it's too early
Harness the horses
Call back the crew
We are barely fifteen years old

(Him) We are fifteen years old, it's true
But I love you, you know
I know the East and the West
I know the North
It's the South I want
The South is in your eyes

(Her) Come on, wait
One must be wise
You crumpled my blouse
One must be patient
We have time
For the light-hearted gallantries
We'll do it your nice journey
We are always twenty years old

(Him) We are always twenty years old
But not for very long
One day we are thirty years old
And then one day fourty
And then we do not count no more
It's time which is counting us
And there, there is more than
necessary in the fairytales

(Her) Oh you were right
I beg for your forgiveness
If I had known
That you'd be my companion
But I could not have known
You who were the first
That you would be the only one
That you'd be the last
Come, it's our last wrecking
We'll do it, the journey
Yes, but just the two of us
Come, put your hand in mine
Don't be afraid, I'm holding you tight

(Him) Oh, don't push me
You are expected over there
It's not that I am tormented
To go in hell
But I can't now
I have something to do
After all there is no hurry
I want my share of caresses
I've the regret of the vine arbour
I want to finish my bottle

(Her) Do not leave me
I'm afraid to get cold
Oh, come right against me
If you loved me
Like I loved you
You only loved me
Tell me, my love
For the last time

Lise Médini - Song for this night

Original Title: "Chanson pour cette nuit"
Year: 1970

Sleep, my love, sleep, I'm watching
Me, I can not sleep
This night, I want it full
And round like a seafood

I want to see on your lips
The air you are going to breath
I want to be born on your breath
I want to be born from a kiss

My gaze which bathes you in sunshines
Makes your body way more naked
From the heel to the groin
I caress you with my eyes

But the swell rocks me
I drift away crazily
I'm the wave and the foam
I'm the sea in motion

Your arms open up, I break
You wake up my love
Your voice rumbles the storm
You throw the anchor and nails me

Prisonner of your legs
Spread in your arms
Hung up from your smile
I only exist through you

Dance, dance, my body, dance
Make all the sacred gestures
Like at the first day of the world
When love was invented

Jean-Marie Vivier - What I do not tell you

Original Title: C'que j'te dis pas
Year: 1991

If I were to tell you what I do not tell you
And that I've never been able to tell
I, so shy and clumsy
Aside from when I'm in my frenzy

If I told you: you are like a sky
letting all its sorrow cry
Way more precious than a rainbow
As it comes to die in my hand

If I told you: you are a star
For a Pierrot who plays so badly
And who never reveals himself
Or dirties himself sideways

If I dared to tell you what I do not tell you
Houses full of dreams
and of tendernesses at every finger
Where I learn my keys again

If I dared to say that you are an island
Where we board everytime
We have the heart way too fragile
And like it, you are always there

If I dared to say that you are the port of call
Where I lay my sad mornings
On the pathway you are my lantern
To keep the artist's life going

Tonight I tell you what I do not tell you
You are like a bedhead book
Which we rediscover every time
And which never ends

You are a hundred thousand days per second
And all the seconds of my life
One hundred thousands places merging together
To form a single country

You are Time runnning after the hours
To stop their steps
To tame happiness
Tonight I tell you what I do not tell you

I love you
I love you

Serge Reggiani - Of velvet and silk

Original Title: "De velours et de soie"
Text: Boris Vian
Year: 1964

Wild flowers
Oceans of the world
Blond islands
Had always tempted me

Done the big travels
Done the orange skies
All the odd shivers
You have given those to me

Of velvet and silk
Like your perfumed skin
Of light and velvet
Like your eyes

Of rose and light
Like the taste of your mouth
Of blood and fresh rose
Like your cheeks

Of fire, gold and blood
Like a kiss you give to me
Of silver, fire and gold
Like your body which gives itself

Of sun and silver
Your hair in the purple wind
Of pleasure and sun
Like a night in your arms.

Léo Ferré - Verlaine - Sentimental Colloqium

Original Title: "Colloque sentimental"
Text: Paul Verlaine
Year:1986
There is a very good translation here but it does not match words for words.

In the old park, lonely and frozen,
Two shapes have passed earlier.

Their eyes are dead, their lips are limp
And one can barely hear their words.

In the old park, lonely and frozen,
Two ghosts have recalled the past

- Do you remember our past ecstasy?
- Why do you want me to remember it?

- Does your heart still beat by my name alone?
Do you still see my soul in dream?

- No - Ah! The beautiful days of inexpressible happiness
When we joined our mouths! - It's possible

- How blue the sky was and how big hope was!
- Hope has fled, vanquished, to the black sky

Such they walked on in the wild oats
And only the night heard their words.

Jacques Bertin - I had my soul

Original Title: "J'avais mon âme"
Year: 1968

I had my soul wide open
I was alone and had time
Air was bursting on the road
The girl was going up, going up
A singing girl through the vine

While singing her loves, distracted
With a very distant gaze
Pushing her song in front of her
The girl was going up, going up
I, was seeing her pass, I was hungry

She offered me of her mystery
A sad and charming smile
I invited her in a big silence
Come here, come here beauty
To hide your story in my hands

Then she left without a word
She will come back tomorrow
Maybe it'll be another one
Come here, come here beauty
With her secret, her distant gaze

Girls will come by the dozen
Dry their linen on my wire
Whom I'll love one after the other
Come here, come here beauty
For their mystery and my hesitating look

So am I, so are we
The dream marching in front
What is this distant song
In the heavy eyes of the strangers
Like my shadow haunting me
Or like a lost paradise?

Léo Ferré - You never say anything

Original Title: "Tu ne dis jamais rien"
Year: 1971

I see the world a bit like one sees the unbelievable
This what the unbelievable is, it's what we are not seeing
Flowers inside pencils, Debussy on the sand
In Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer which I do not know
The girls in iron at the bottom of the habits
And miners digging in their all warm bellies
Some bras with cats, some bosses in the South
Busy working hard for the workmen from Renault
Me, I thus live elsewhere in dimension four
With the comic book "At mc²"
I am Tomorrow, I am the Oak and I am the hearth
Come over to my place, my love, come to my place there is some fire
I'm flying for the skin on the rest area of the miseries
I am an old Boeing of the year eighty nine
I leave the flower at my teeth for the last war
My typewriter has a whole new suit
I see the stereo in the eye of a petite girl
Some pianos on some girl's bellies in Paris
A frozen chimpanzee singing my music
softly along with me, and you, you did not say anything

You never say anything, you never say anything
Sometimes you cry, like beasts cry
Without knowing why and who do not say a word
Like you, the eye elsewhere, celebrating me.

In your barren belly, I see some multitudes
I am Tomorrow. It's You the tomorrow of my life
I see some lost fiancees who are getting undressed
to the velvet of your voice that goes over the night
I see some tepid smells on cobbles out of a dream
In Paris when I am lying down in her bed
To see passing over me some girls and some sponges
Who sob of the sap of the age of foly
Me, I live thus elsewhere in the X dimension
With the comic book at a friend's home
I am Never I am Always I am the X
Of the love formula and of the boredom one
I see some blue tramways on some rails of sad children
Some chinese folding screens in front of the North wind
Some objects without purpose, some artist's windows
From which come out the sun, genius and death
Wait, I see very close an orphan star
Which comes inside your house to talk to you about me
I know her for a long while, she is my neighbor
But its light is illusory, like I am

And you do not say anything to me. You never say anything
But you shine in my heart like this star shines
With its lost fires in some far away paths
You never say anything like stars do.

You never say anything
You never say anything
You never say anything
You never say anything