serge gainsbourg lyrics

I'd love to read a translated "Cargo Culte".

Serge Gainsbourg studio version

I know me of the wizards who call upon the jets
In the jungle of New Guinea
They scan the zenith coveting Guineas
That the plundering of freight would pay to them

On the coral sea to the passage of this
Apparatus these not stripped creatures
From reason these papous awaits clouds
The damage of Viscount and that of Comet

And like their totem never could cut down
Their feet neither Boeing nor even D. C. four
They dream of hijacks and accidents of birds

These naive naufrageurs armed with blowpipes
Who sacrifice thus to the worship of the cargo liner
Into blowing towards the azure and the airplanes.

Where you are Melody and your dislocated body
Haunt it the archipelago which the sirens populate
Or hung to the cargo liner of which the siren
Of alarm keep silent itself, you remained

Randomly currents you already touched
These luminous corals of the coasts guinéennes
Where these indigenous wizards are agitated in vain
Who still hope for broken planes

Not having more anything to lose nor God in whom to believe
So that they return my ridiculous loves to me
Me, like them, I requested the cargo liners of the night

And I keep this hope of a disaster
Air which raménerait me Melody
Minor diverted attraction of the stars.

"You are called how?"
"Melody."
"Melody how?"
"Melody Nelson."

Je sais moi des sorciers qui invoquent les jets
Dans la jungle de Nouvelle-Guinée
Ils scrutent le zénith convoitant les guinées
Que leur rapporterait le pillage du fret

Sur la mer de corail au passage de cet
Appareil ces créatures non dénuées
De raison ces papous attendent des nuées
L'avarie du Viscount et celle du Comet

Et comme leur totem n'a jamais pu abattre
A leurs pieds ni Bœing ni même D.C. quatre
Ils rêvent de hijacks et d'accidents d'oiseaux

Ces naufrageurs naïfs armés de sarbacanes
Qui sacrifient ainsi au culte du cargo
En soufflant vers l'azur et les aéroplanes.

Où es-tu Melody et ton corps disloqué
Hante-t-il l'archipel que peuplent les sirènes
Ou bien accrochés au cargo dont la sirène
D'alarme s'est tue, es-tu restée

Au hasard des courants as-tu déjà touché

Ces lumineux coraux des côtes guinéennes
Où s'agitent en vain ces sorciers indigènes
Qui espèrent encore des avions brisés

N'ayant plus rien à perdre ni Dieu en qui croire
Afin qu'ils me rendent mes amours dérisoires
Moi, comme eux, j'ai prié les cargos de la nuit

Et je garde cette espérance d'un désastre
Aérien qui me ramènerait Melody
Mineure détournée de l'attraction des astres.

" Tu t'appelles comment ?
- Melody
- Melody comment ?
- Melody Nelson. "

Me, I know of wizards in the New Guinea jungle
That call out for jets
They scan the skies hungry for the money
The pillage of cargo will bring

Is today the day where we all say "No offence Mark"?

When the aircraft passes
These not-bereft-of reason Papuans
await the swarms of Viscount and Comet(aircraft names, I assume) debris
On the coral sea

Note that the first two stanzas have the same rhyme scheme and the cheeky (in the sense of pushing it) rhyme of the middle lines dénuées denuded or bereft, and des nuées (some) swarms.

And since their idol has never been able to strike down
neither Boeing nor even D.C. Four
They dream of hijacks and birds in the turbines

I love the abattre/D.C. quatre rhyme.

These naive shipwreckers armed only with blow guns
who sacrifice like this to the cargo culte:
By blowing up to the blue sky and the airplanes

Naufrageurs is a made-up word calqued on naufragés, shipwreck-survivors, and aéroplanes is an exotic from the English. The normal word is avion but that doesn't rhyme with sabarcane, does it?

Where are you Melody and your dislocated body?
Does it haunt the archipelago peopled by sirens
Or did you remain attached to the cargo whose alarm siren
has fallen silent?

Ces lumineux coraux des côtes guinéennes
Où s'agitent en vain ces sorciers indigènes
Qui espèrent encore des avions brisés

At the mercy of the currents have you already touched on

the luminous corals of the Guinean coast
where indigenous sorcerers make much ado in vain
and hope for broken airplanes

Having nothing more to lose nor God to believe in
So that they would give me back my laughable loves
Like them, I too prayed to the night cargo (planes)

Why? Perhaps the better translation into English would be 'broken'.

" Tu t'appelles comment ?
- Melody
- Melody comment ?
- Melody Nelson. "

And I keep hoping for an aerial disaster
that will bring back to me, Melody,
a minor hijacked by (her) attraction to the stars*

-What's your name?
-Melody
-Melody what?
-Melody Nelson

*Mineure détournée de l'attraction des astres is a lovely line that's extremely hard to do justice to. First of all it makes reference to détournement des mineures or 'contributing to the delinquency of a minor' but détournée also means 'hijacked, weaned, circuitous, and turned away or in the wrong direction'. Gainsbourg, who had a penchant for using puns even if he had to appropriate them from other languages may also be making a reference to himself in astres. The French word for 'star' as in celebrity, is usually vedette but the English word 'star' is not unknown, and this line could be read 'a minor who has been turned away from her attraction to the stars'. Again the rhyme désastre/des astres is quite simple but powerful.

But she's not diverted from the stars, she'd diverted from the attraction of the stars.

Rosemary, anytime, anytime, except you live on the other side of the country, right? Might take me a while to hitch-hike out there.

It's an incontrovertible fact that he's the greatest lyricist of all time. And I strongly, STRONGLY suggest that those of you who haven't heard 'L'Homme à tête de chou' (The Man with the Cabbage Head) or 'Aux armes et cetaera' (To Arms, Et Cetera -- or, the way the chorus verse to La Marseillaise would appear in a print rendition of the lyrics from the first repetition and so on) waste no time ordering from Amazon.fr or something right NOW. They are sublime masterpieces.

Anyone interested in receiving the PDFs as they get finished, drop me an email. The 'Histoire de Melody Nelson' one is ready to go right now.

I'll send you an email.

"Variations sur Marilou" on 'L'Homme à tête de chou' is perhaps the most lyrically-conceptually ambitious song I've ever heard. And what's more, it succeeds on every level. The sum of its power (a sum that includes all the songs on the album that precede it, as the album is a song-cycle or 'concept album' if you will, risible though that term may be)....... is absolute. The only thing I can compare it to is 'Céline and Julie Go Boating' in cinema or maybe the end of 'Underworld' in literature.
― craig keller (evillights), Wednesday, June 22, 2005 3:32 PM (seventeen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

OTM, the depth of the wordplay and imagery in those lyrics is really astonishing. I listened to Gainsbourg for too many years without properly appreciating his lyrics, but I'm trying to make up for lost time now.

These are two decent English translations of "Variations sur Marilou", the second from Walter Dubois's book of Gainsbourg translations, which I need to cop ASAP:

https://web.archive.org/web/20160408025915/http://www.myownrole.com/variationsurmarilou.html

@BBC_Culture @JaneBirkinOff I just released a collection of 79 song translations, including Variations sur Marilou - see pics @catherine_pound perhaps you could review the book as a follow-up article? happy to send you the manuscript :)https://t.co/lCBg0Lp9Gw pic.twitter.com/PQzsHAMC0x

— Serge Gainsbourg, Translated (@SergeTranslated) August 5, 2020