Dear French colleagues, could you help me out?

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ESL forum > Ask for help > Dear French colleagues, could you help me out?

Dear French colleagues, could you help me out?

elderberrywine

Dear French colleagues, could you help me out?

I �d like to study a Carla Bruni song (Little French song) in class tomorrow, but I don �t understand some of the lines

these lines give you the general idea:

Quand tout va mal, when life goes wrong

try for a little French song

French songs are maybe d�mod�es

mais si douces � fredonner

French songs are tender � I �envi, nostalgiques � l �infini
Et quand on n �sait plus where to belong

try for a little French song French

songs will take you to Paris, to Pigalle ou I ��le Saint-Louis

French songs are dancing sous la pluie, de Bastille aux Tuileries

and these lines make me wonder what they mean:

Et qu �on soit de Londres ou de Hong Kong,

qu �on soit trois feuilles ou shu-bang

Qu �on soit djellabah ou sarong,

could you help me understand? i suppose it means wherever you come from in the world, but I �d like to understand each metaphor.
Reply in French, if you like...

thanks in advance!
Elder

14 Jul 2013

maryse pey�

When life goes wrong

Try to sing a little French song

French songs are maybe out of fashion

But so soft (or tender) to sing

French songs are tender whenever you want, with some nostalgy and infinitely

And where you know no longer where you belong to

Try to sing a little French song

Songs will take you to Paris, to Pigalle (a famous district) or on St-Louis Island

French songs are dancing in the rain, from Bastille to the Tuileries (2 famous districts)

And from London or from Hong Kong

you may prefer 3 leaves or shu-bang

you may dress in djellabah or sarong

That means simple things you are right.

The 1st line means "no matter the city you come from"

The 2nd line means "no matter the tea you drink" (because I guess there are some kinds of tea)

The 3rd line means "no matter the way you dress" (as "djellabah" is an Arabic piece of clothes and "sarong" an Indian one).

Does it help you ?

14 Jul 2013

elderberrywine

yes, thanks a lot, it �s much less mysterious than I thought!

14 Jul 2013

Pelletrine

Sorry: line 2 is a bit less romantic : it is not tea but marihuanna in fact.

3 leaves are 3 sheets of (cigarette) papers/leaves: in French "feuille" can mean a leaf, and, a sheet of paper.

3 leaves = a marihuanna cigarette (joint) rolled with 3 pieces of cigarette paper (a big one)

a shu-bang .. is a sort of pipe for smoking hashis

... you might want to know that before your students question you ;o))

.... the 2nd line means more something like, doesn �t matter how you like to drug yourself (softer: how you like to become �high �)

hugs

14 Jul 2013