Le petit joueur de fluteau [English translation]

The little flute player

managed the court music1.

To thank him for his songs

the king offered him a coat of arms:

"I don't want to be a noble"

the music-maker answered,

"with a coat of arms thrown in2

my style3 would get inflated4,

people would say, all over the country,

'The flute-player has betrayed us',

"And my poor little steeple

would seem not high enough for me,

I wouldn't bend the knee any more

before our good homely God,

for my grand soul I would need

all the saints of Notre-Dame

with a bishop thrown in,

my style would get inflated,

people would say, all over the country,

'The flute-player has betrayed us',

"And the room where I was born

would be a dismal place for me to be in,

I would get rid of my third-rate bed

and get a four-poster with a canopy,

I'd swap my cottage

for a country seat,

with a manor thrown in

my style would get inflated,

people would say, all over the country,

'The flute-player has betrayed us',

"I'll be ashamed of my blood-line,

of the ancestors from whom I descend,

I'll be seen turning my nose up about

the family branch to which I belong5,

I would want a magnificent

family tree,

with blue bood thrown in,

my style would get inflated,

people would say, all over the country,

'The flute-player has betrayed us',

"I would no longer want to marry

my betrothed, my fiancée,

I wouldn't give my name

to some kind of Ninon6,

for a concubine or a spouse7 I would need

the daughter of a Spanish grandee,

with a princess thrown in

my style would get inflated,

people would say, all over the country,

'The flute-player has betrayed us'."

The little flute player

bowed to the court,

with no coat of arms, without title deeds,

without glory, he set off

towards his steeple, his cottage,

his family and his betrothed...

No-one in the country says

"The flute player has betrayed us",

And let God recognise as his own

the decent little flute player.

1. lit: the music at the castle2. maybe a pun on "in the correct key" - key in the musical sense; but "à la clé" commonly means "in addition to the rest", "thrown in", "into the bargain"3. lit:"my La": how he gets everyone tuned up4. ie big-headed, above himself5. lit: from which I am descended6. non-U familiar name, usually from Ninette7. compagnon means one or the other