Les Passantes Text with translation

Les Passantes

This is Georges Brassens' setting of the poem by Antoine Pol

"Les Passantes" is the song that achieves the most hits on my Brassens website.

The poetic words of Antoine Pol say that most of the romantic experiences of life prove to be incomplete and unsatisfactory. Yet the song itself reminds us that, in spite all this, life has its own melancholic music.

Biographical Note

Brassens tells us that when he wrote this verse, he had in his thoughts his partner Joha Heiman, who was enduring a loveless marriage when he first met her.

Je veux dédier ce poème A toutes les femmes qu'on aime Pendant quelques instants secrets A celles qu'on connait à peine Qu'un destin différent entraîne Et qu'on ne retrouve jamais A celle qu'on voit apparaître Une seconde à sa fenêtre Et qui, preste, s'évanouit Mais dont la svelte silhouette Est si gracieuse et fluette Qu'on en demeure épanoui . A la fine et souple valseuse Qui vous sembla triste et nerveuse Par une nuit de carnaval Qui voulut rester inconnue Et qui n'est jamais revenue Tournoyer dans un autre bal A la compagne de voyage Dont les yeux, charmant paysage Font paraître court le chemin Qu'on est seul, peut-être, à comprendre Et qu'on laisse pourtant descendre Sans avoir effleuré sa main. A celles qui sont déjà prises Et qui, vivant des heures grises Près d'un être trop différent (1) Vous ont, inutile folie, Laissé voir la mélancolie D'un avenir désespérant Chères images aperçues Espérances d'un jour déçues Vous serez dans l'oubli demain Pour peu que le bonheur survienne Il est rare qu'on se souvienne Des épisodes du chemin Mais si l'on a manqué sa vie On songe avec un peu d'envie A tous ces bonheurs entrevus Aux baisers qu'on n'osa pas prendre Aux cœurs qui doivent vous attendre Aux yeux qu'on n'a jamais revus. Alors, aux soirs de lassitude Tout en peuplant sa solitude Des fantômes du souvenir On pleure les lèvres absentes De toutes ces belles passantes Que l'on n'a pas su retenir

I wish to dedicate this poem To all of the women that one loves For just a few secret moments To those whom you scarcely know Whom a different fate bears away And whom you see never again. To the one whom you saw appear For a brief second at her window And who, straightway, is lost from sight And yet whose slender silhouette Is so graceful and alluring That you stay tingling with her glow. To the lithe girl of a stylish waltz Who seemed to you nervous and sad Creature of  Carnival night Who wished to remain a stranger And who never came back to join In the whirl of another ball. To the girl who shared your journey, Whose eyes, charming to look upon , Make the route you travelled seem short  Whom just you, p’rhaps could understand Yet whom you allow to go off Without the mere touch of her hand. To those women already taken Who, living long and dull hours With a person too different Let you see, pointless folly The depth of the melancholy Of a future deprived of hope. Dear images only half seen Disappointed hopes of just one day You’ll be quite forgotten the next  If only good fortune prevails. It's unusual that one retains Trivial events on life’s way. But if you have missed out on life You ponder with tinges of envy, All those moments of bliss you glimpsed The kisses you did not dare take The hearts which must be left waiting The eyes that were not seen again. And so, on wearisome evenings, While peopling your loneliness With the phantoms of  memory One weeps for lips, sadly absent Of all those beaut’ful passers-by Whom you knew not how to keep hold.

Comment

:Oxzen said...

 I've been looking for a good translation of "Les Passantes" for years, so many thanks for this, David. Very well laid out and displayed. Particularly liked the way you incorporated the excellent video. Have you seen the version sung by Francis Cabrel?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C27QQXWle6c 

It has some nice bluesy guitar work and a fantastic blues harmonica solo in the middle. 5 minutes of real bliss.

Not surprising that a fellow Libran should have such a love of this beautiful piece of work, and of Brassens generally.

11 April 2008 at 15:03 

Here is Francis Cabrel's recording:

I am always amazed by the expressiveness of a single guitar in the hands of a virtuoso, such as the following by Michel Sadanowsky (2013):

To return to my list of translations of over 80 Brassens' songs, please click on the following link :

My full Brassens selection in alphabetical order