She’s a beauty Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jun 13, 2017 in Culture, Music
As one of my fellow bloggers said, Claude François was “an iconic French singer who died at 39 years old, and who even [more than] 30 years after his death still fascinates people in France and abroad…”. I suspect that fascination is due in equal parts to his great songs, his tragic death . . . and his crazy dancing! I mean, check him out! As you can see in the video below, he never stops moving!
Belinda*
| Il faut que je vous chante pour oublier | I must sing to you to forget |
| Une étoile filante qui m’a quitté | A shooting star who has left me |
| Vous pouvez m’aidez à la trouver | You can help me find her |
| Elle a les yeux bleus Belinda | She has blue eyes Belinda |
| Elle a le front** blond Belinda | With blond hair framing her face (lit. ‘she has a blond forehead’) |
| Ça fait dix fois qu’elle s’en va et qu’elle revient | This is the tenth time that she’s left and that she’s come back |
| C’est elle qui fait mon cœur et qui défait mon cœur de ses mains | She’s the one who makes my heart and unmakes it with her hands |
| Si vous la voyez | Si you see her |
| Vous la reconnaitrez | You will recognize her |
| Elle a les yeux bleus Belinda | She has blue eyes Belinda |
| Elle a le front blond Belinda | With blond hair framing her face Belinda |
| Je devrais en avoir l’habitude | I should be used to it |
| Et l’attendre comme je l’ai fait souvent | And wait for her like I have often done |
| Mais j’entends crier ma solitude | But I hear my loneliness calling |
| Je l’appelle et ma voix tombe dans le vent | I call her and my voice is lost (falls) in the wind |
| Elle est dans mon sommeil comme une fleur | She is in my dreams like a flower |
| Un soleil sans soleil et sans chaleur | A sun without sun and without heat |
| Vous pouvez m’aider à la trouver | You can help me find her |
| Elle a les yeux bleus Belinda | She has blue eyes Belinda |
| Elle a le front blond Belinda | With blond hair framing her face Belinda |
Belinda was reprise (reprised) a few years back by the French singer M. Pokura [if you missed my earlier post you can read a bit more about him here and see his version of Cette annee-la (That year, a French version of the English song Oh What a Night)]. Lequel des deux versions préférerez-vous? (Which version do you like best?)
* Belinda, like a number of Cloclo‘s great hits, is a French remake of an earlier English song released in 1972 by British artist David Parton. (You can hear a version of it here if you like. The lyrics of the English don’t quite align to the French though, so don’t rely on it for your learning.)
** ‘le front’ is literally ‘the forehead’ or ‘the front of the head/face’. Like many words in songs, it is being used here figuratively, most likely to mean that Belinda is blond. As I mentioned, the original English song had different lyrics altogether, so we can’t rely on them!
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About the Author: Tim Hildreth
Since my first trip to France at 16, I have been a passionate francophile. I love the language, food, music, art, people, and more that make France and la Francophonie in general such an amazing part of our global community. Having lived in France and studied the language and culture for over 35 years, it is my great pleasure to be able to share a little bit of my deep love with you through this blog.
Comments:
mad tony:
Clo Clo’s was better