Raconte-moi..... a great little song

"Raconte-Moi..."

A great little song

Tracey Kent - Raconte-moi... Album Cover

"Raconte-moi" is a great little song that I love, sang by Jazz singer Tracey Kent. Her smooth, soft, low-key voice sets the romantic and lazy Sunday morning mood of this song. 

One of my Hongkongese colleagues who also love that song asked me to translate it for him to have a better idea of what the song is talking about. 

So, I obliged him by translating to the best I could the metaphorical lyrics of that song written by Bernie Beaupere, Jean-Karl Lucas, Emilie Satt. 

At first, I told myself that I will use "Google Translation" to see what the literal translation could be, however, I immediately realized that Google had no clue about the metaphors used in this song and the translation was stupid at best and awkward at worst and didn't make much sense overall.   

So, I decided to translate it myself, with my understanding and interpretation of the lyrics' words and metaphors. I love doing this exercise of translating, whether it is a text, a book, a song, a poem or whatever else, I found it fun to translate either from French to English, or English to French. I have always loved doing it.

French understanding and singing along
of English and American Songs on the Radio back in the 80s
by ©LeDomduVin 2019

More especially when I was young listening to the English and American songs on the radio, singing along incomprehensible and incorrect words, in some sort of English with my strong French accent, which in fact sounded more like Franglish, believing I was really singing correctly the lyrics of the songs...  but I only realized my "partial" (should I say "quasi-inexistent") understanding of the songs  when I was looking at the lyrics on the back of the vinyl's cover (33 Tours) or reading them in the booklet coming with the "cassette" (music tape).

To better understand the lyrics, I looked up the words in my English-French dictionary first, then write them down and tried to translate the set of words of the songs, more in a literal way then in a comprehensible way I must say.....  It was fun and usually gave me a different perspective on the meaning of the song... some songs were really cool, others were really lame and cheesy ... but I still like them...

So, without further due, here is the translation of this great little song called "Raconte-moi" or  "Tell me" in English by Tracey Kent. 

Lyrics in French	Translation in English
Raconte-moi	Tell me
La lumière ruisselle	The light is streaming
Derrière le rideau	Behind the curtain
Une voix de cresselle	A rattle voice
Dit qu'il va faire beau	Says the weather will be nice
Mais je m'en fou pas mal des choses de la rue	But I do not care much about things in the street
Y'a des caresses, des croissants tout chauds	There are some caresses, hot croissants
Du thé à l'amour et des fruits confus	Tea with love and confused fruits
Serve-moi encore un petit verre d'eau	Poor me a little glass of water
Raconte-moi des rêves	Tell me about dreams
Au gout du cajou	With taste of cashew
Sur un bout de grève	On the tip of a shore
Le long de ton cou	Along your neck
Sens là c'est des soleils	Feel there, these are suns
Sur ta peau saline	On your salty skin
Dessine-moi une abeille	Draw me a bee
Que je te butine	So I can lick you
Midi qui klaxonne	Midday is honking
Sur le macadame	On the macadam
Les bistros bourdonnent	The Bistros are buzzing
L'assenceur qui brumme	The elevator is growling
Mais je m'en fou pas mal des choses de la rue	But I do not care much about things in the street
Donne moi plutôt un savon qui mousse	Rather give me a soap that foam
Je ferais l'animal pris au dépourvu	I will do the animal caught off guard
Si tu me fais des chose si douces	If you do to me such sweet things
Racontes-moi des rêves	Tell me about dreams
Des histoires de fou	Crazy stories
Sur le bout des lèvres	On the tip of your lips
Racontes-moi tout	Tell me everything
Sens là c'est des soleils	Feel there, these are suns
Sur ta peau saline	On your salty skin
Dessine-moi une abeille	Draw me a bee
Que je te butinne	So I can lick you
Le jour qui grisonne	The day is turning grey
Les heures qui se fanent	The hours are fading
Faut que tu telephones	You should give a phone call
A tes états d'âmes	to your moods
Mais je m'en fou pas mal des choses de ta vie	But I do not care much about things in your life
De tes rendez-vous que tu n'as pas pris	Of your appointments that you did not take
De tes mecredis qui sont bien remplies	Of your Wednesdays which are well filled
Et de ton mobile qui n'a plus de batterie	And your mobile phone that has no battery
Racontes-moi des rêves	Tell me about dreams
Des histoires de fou	Crazy stories
Si le jour se lève	If the day comes up
Dis lui qu'on s'en fou	Tell him we do not care
Sens là c'est des soleils	Feel there, these are suns
Sur ta peau saline	On your salty skin
Dessine-moi une abeille	Draw me a bee
Que je te butine	That I can lick you

I love this song because of the story it tells us. The story of a couple, still in bed, probably on a lazy Sunday morning. The woman is looking at the sun rising behind the curtain, forming patches of light that she calls "suns" on the skin of her partner. And she briefly looked in the street by the window, but she obviously does not care about what is happening outside, as she feels comfy and nice, cuddling and kissing in the bed, and obviously has something in mind.....

That's all folks for today,

Just a little song I love and that you can watch on YouTube

Stay tuned for more posts coming soon 

LeDomduVin a.k.a. Dominique Noel