In search of a word

When this song popped out of my iPod last night, I was in the next room. Something about the tone of the music carried and made me hear for the first time.

Having never really understood the text, I went looking for a translation. A quick scan of the google pointed only to the French lyrics, which was handy but only took me so far as my French could flatteringly be described as beginner to immediate. There is sure to be an English version of two (million) out there, but translating and playing around did keep me from the TV and a documentary about an over-rated Australian pub band that somehow had a bunch of hits. It seems the title is something of a paradox, and resists literal translation. (The lyrics of Je t'aime moi non plus don't make much literal sense, but nobody complains about that.)

Fuir le bonheur de peur qu’il ne se sauve was written by Serge Gainsbourg and sung by Jane Birkin. The song was written in the wake of their break-up, a parting gift, and released in 1983.

Like its title, Fuir le bonheur de peur qu’il ne se sauve resists surrendering its passport to English pop. What is it? (Let's not call it a certain je ne sais quoi.) The bittersweet quality of the lyric is in the DNA of the song. The tension between the song and the singer is part of it: the lover telling the loved to flee, run away. An abject, adolescent response (a fear of intimacy?), might be all that such a stance could offer turns transcendent. If the song has a counterpart in English, then perhaps something like Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen might come closest. To my ears there is an intensity to the melody and the lyric that all Serge.

Catherine Deneuve read the text at Serge Gainsbourg's funeral. Serge Gainsbourg died in 1991.

There are numerous versions of Fuir le bonheur on YouTube, filmed over many years. In a late version, the television audience stands when Jane Birkin enters the studio, and again at the song's end. I saw Jane Birkin perform at the Recital Centre in 2012. She sang this song, accompanied by a Japanese quartet. Wonderful.

I have no doubt taken taken liberties with the translation. Apologies for the clunks. 

Fuir le bonheur de peur qu’il ne se sauve

Serge Gainsbourg

Flee happiness lest it should disappear

That the azure sky turn purple

To think or move on to other things,

Would be better.

Flee happiness lest it should disappear

And say there is an ‘over the rainbow’

Always higher than the sun above.

Glorious to believe in the heaven,

To believe in gods

Even when all seems terrible to us

And in our hearts are blood and fire.

Flee happiness lest it should disappear,

Like a little mouse in an alcove corner

Sense the tip of its pink tail

Its eyes ablaze.

Flee happiness lest it should disappear

And say there is an ‘over the rainbow’

Always higher than the sun above

Glorious to believe in the heaven,

To believe in gods

Even when all seems terrible to us

And in our hearts are blood and fire.

Flee from happiness lest it should disappear

To see, sometimes to wish, to be safe from crying

Who knows the depth of things is unhappy

To believe in heaven,

To believe in gods

Even when all seems terrible to us

And in our hearts are blood and fire.

Flee from happiness lest it should disappear

Tell me you love me, again, if you dare

I would like that you find other things,

Better things

Flee from happiness lest it should disappear

And say there is an ‘over the rainbow’

Always higher than the sky above

Glorious.

(translation, Mike Shuttleworth)

Fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve

(Words and music by Sere Gainsbourg)

Fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
que le ciel azuré ne vire au mauve
penser ou passer à autre chose
vaudrait mieux
fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
se dire qu'il y a over the rainbow
toujours plus haut le soleil above
radieux
croire aux cieux croire aux dieux
même quand tout nous semble odieux
que notre cœur est mis à sang et à feu

fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
comme une petite souris dans un coin d'alcôve
apercevoir le bout de sa queue rose
ses yeux fiévreux
fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
se dire qu'il y a over the rainbow
toujours plus haut le soleil above
radieux
croire aux cieux croire aux dieux
même quand tout nous semble odieux
que notre cœur est mis à sang et à feu

fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
avoir parfois envie de crier sauve
qui peut savoir jusqu'au fond des choses
est malheureux
fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
se dire qu'il y a over the rainbow
toujours plus haut le soleil above
radieux
croire aux cieux croire aux dieux
même quand tout nous semble odieux
que notre cœur est mis à sang et à feu

fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
dis-moi que tu m'aimes encore si tu l'oses
j'aimerais que tu te trouves autre chose
de mieux
fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
se dire qu'il y a over the rainbow
toujours plus haut le soleil above
radieux