Last week, Jim Adams (NewEpicAuthor, A Unique Title For Me) set a theme of crazy (my choice). This week, just the one-word theme of la.
When I first saw Jim’s prompt, the very first thing I thought was, “the what?” And, “why is he speaking French to me?” Okay, I read on and his prompt became clear, but just to stick with my first impression, I shall respond in kind.
In English, we have he, she or it, the rules for which follow how gender-specific something is. I guess something like 99% is just it. In French, however, there is only the concept of masculine and feminine – he or she. Inanimate objects are assigned a gender, which, believe me, is not always obvious! la is just the feminine equivalent of the.
So words like the sea (la mer) have a gender – who’d have thought that the sea was feminine? But obvious to any French-speaker.
I have what you might call an oldie today. In fact the songwriter (and singer) Charles Trenet, was born in 1913, started performing in the early Thirties, and was active almost until his death in 2001, aged a ripe old 87.
As the story goes, Trenet wrote the words to La Mer as a teenager. The tune came years later, when he was an established artist, while travelling by train between Montpellier and Perpignan in wartime, Vichy France. The tune came to him as he was passing the Bassin de Thau, a lagoon on the southern coast. I’ve holidayed there and….think oysters (and, of course, wine)!
Released way back at the end of the war, there have been many cover versions of this song over the years, but for my money, the original is the best. Once again, I include the lyrics and their translation below:
| LA MER | THE SEA |
| La mer qu’on voit danser le long des golfes clairs a des reflets d’argent, la mer, des reflets changeants sous la pluie. La mer au ciel d’été confond ses blancs moutons avec les anges si purs, la mer bergère d’azur infinie. Voyez, près des étangs, ces grands roseaux mouillés. Voyez, ces oiseaux blancs et ces maisons rouillées. La mer les a bercés le long des golfes clairs et d’une chanson d’amour, la mer a bercé mon cœur pour la vie. | The sea We see dancing along the shores of clear bays, Shimmers with silver The sea Changing shimmers Under the rain The sea With the summer sky Mix up her white horses With the angels so pure The infinite azure shepherdess Sea Sea By the ponds Those big wet reeds See Those white birds And those rusty houses The sea Has cradled them Along the shores of clear bays And with a love song The sea Has rocked my heart for life |
Incidentally, while I’m on the subject of Trenet, La Mer is not my favourite song of his. If you can take any more, I also present Boum! (whose lyrics and translation can be found here). I guess that song also fits in with the prompt, just because la appears in the lyrics.
Mister Bump 
I love “Boum!” – I can’t help but feel happy whenever I hear it 😊
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Absolutely. Total nonsense…but a happy tune. Isn’t it great how music can do thin to us?
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So true – I definitely turn to music to comfort and uplift me. There’s also music I avoid if I’m not feeling great. I’ve always been affected by it and struggle to understand those that aren’t 🤔
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It is weird because when I decided to do my Tick Tock posts I originally thought that it might be anything, but in fact 90% has been music. I have one of two bits of tv, a painter, but mostly music. If I’m feeling sombre I sometimes listen to sad music to complement my mood. One of my favourite’s is Fauré’s Requiem Mass. As you can imagine a funeral mass is not a laugh-a-minute. I think SLS has to be quite light.
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Fantastique!
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merci 🙂
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If I would have been quick enough, I would have posted the same song but a different version. I love love love this song and we (me actually) always play it in the car while driving to the sea.
I love this version of La Mer the most: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEOZJSgRK_8
Thank you for posting this beautiful song!
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That’s a brilliant version, isn’t it? You can just hear the resonance in his voice. I sent you another song you’ll like through your contact form.
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ok 🙂 I’m going to have a look there and see if I can understand it.
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I bet you’ll know it well!
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Great! Thank you! 🙂
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I really like La Mer but strangely enough I rather enjoyed Kevin Kline singing it in French Kiss. Great choice!
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I thought he has a rally good voice. A (French) friend of mine marvels at his French, also.He apparently speaks with hardly any accent, which is very unusual for an English speaker. I used to be mistaken for a German 🙂
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It is amazing what some people can accomplish.
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Beautiful! That piano. Lovely all around.
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Spanish has two different words for “the”, a feminine which is “la” and a masculine which is “el”. Thanks for adding the second Charles Trenet song as I did like that better, but they are both nice. I wonder what that song Boum! is about.
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Yep, I almost presented La Bamba but figured that one of you Americans might present it, and after last week I wanted to try and do something unique. I can’t really make a meaning out from Boum! I hear the words, but they don’t really make sense to me. But I do like it just as a song, though.
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He’s a very smooth singer and French language lends itself well to song. Great choice!
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Great choice. It just does not seem right in English though!
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Beautiful song in French. I still like the one Bobby Darrin sings ‘Beyond the Sea’, which was a tiny bit different lyrics, but the same song, basically.
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[…] week, Jim (NewEpicAuthor, A Unique Title For Me) set a theme of the sound/word la (my choice). This week, theme of football […]
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I learned French as a younger person here in Canada and you are definitely right in the confusion of masculine or feminine nouns. You are not alone!
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In the early days of dvds, I used to buy from amazon.ca because the soundtracks were often English & French. Actually I always fancied visiting Quebec, but maybe nowadays I’d prefer Martinique!
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I would prefer Matinique too! Particularly today with our -20C temperatures. Quebec City is beautiful though. It is the most European looking city we have in terms of having many ‘old’ buildings here. Though not very old by UK standards!
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When I was in the USA, that was my biggest miss. Of the parts of the USA I saw, my favourites were Ybor, in Tampa, heavy with Spanish influence, and Manhattan, again I guess because it has the compactness of a European city.
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[…] week, Jim (NewEpicAuthor, A Unique Title For Me) set a theme of the sound/word la (my choice). This week, theme of football […]
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[…] This song is famous and has been covered in English, but I’ll link to the original today. The English translation can be found here. […]
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