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