Le vieux Léon [English translation]

There will soon have been

fifteen unhappy years,

dear old Léon,

since you left

to go to the heaven

of the accordion,

getting well under way

to see whether local dance

music and the modern java1

had kept

domiciliary rights

at Jehovah's place.

Fifteen years soon,

since, with your music in your backpack,

you went away

to run the show

at the association

of ghost candles2.

In this home,

by Saint Cecilia3,

forgive us

for not having

given sufficient respect

to your bagpipes4.

It's a mistake,

but acordion

players

never, ever,

do we put them

in the Panthéon5

Old man, you have had

to be content with a

plot in cheap ground6

with no great fanfare,

no-one tarted up,

and no Ave7.

But your friends

followed the pinewood8

with aching hearts,

laughing

to make it seem

that they weren't crying

and in our hearts,

poor accordion

player

it is, well,

much less cold

than in the Panthéon.

Old boy, since

you found yourself a place

on the far side of the heavens

there has flowed

some water beneath the

bridges at our place.

The good people

from between Vanves Street

and la Gaité Street9,

each as much as the others,

were swept away

at the mercy of the floods,

but not one of them

has forgotten about

his past times,

all have stayed

in the forget-me-not

camp.

All these guys10

are heavy hearted

dear old Léon

when they hear

the least bit melody

from an accordion.

How's the weather

for the good people

of the beyond?

The musicians,

have they at last

found the A11?

And that cheap plonk,

doesn't it

make it taste better

to be served

in the vineyards

of the Lord?

If now and again

a lady from olden days

lets herself be kissed

surely, old man,

you won't mind

being dead12,

and if the good God

likes, even the slightest bit,

accordion music,

you surely like being

in heaven

dear old Léon.

1. a dance rather like a waltz, but danced by the plebs not by the nobs2. "feu follet" is a direct translation of medieval church Latin "ignis fatuus", for which there are rather a lot of modern English terms, of which "will-o'-the-wisp" is probably the most common. But in this song the context is clear, and these are the wills-o-the-wisp that appear in cemeteries, not the ones that lure people into swamps out in the marshland wilderness, so I've used the traditional term for these, "ghost candles"3. the patron saint of musicians4. probably means his accordion? Although the word normally means the Breton bagpipes, it's also used pejoratively or jokingly (or both at once) of any other wind instruments, including accordions5. The Panthéon de Paris, at the top of the montagne Sainte-Geneviève; only "national heroes" can be buried there, although other "great men" may be remembered on plaques there (for example the French people recognised by the Yad Vashem memorial as "righteous among the nations" share a plque there. Brassens is suggesting (tongue in cheek) that it's a mistake not to recognise accordion players as national heroes6. literally "the turnip field", but it is used figuratively to mean land of little value and no importance7. ave is in italics in Brassens' book, and iwhen he sings it sounds as if it were "avé", so it's the Latin word "ave"; when used like that in French it can means either Ave Maria (Hail Mary) or angelus (the part of the mass that begins with the angel's announcement to Mary) so I suspect that Brassens meant either "just a simple service, not a fancy requiem mass" or "without any religious service at all". So "no Ave".8. a cheap coffin, made of pinewood9. This is a bit ambiguous; it could perhaps be the the Théatre la Gaîté, which in Brassens' time was in central Paris just north of Les Halles, or it could mean the "rue de la Gaîté", a street much closer to the rue de Vanves. As Brassens was associated with the left bank, not the right bank, and often sang in a place on rue de la Gaîté, I am treating it as meaning the street, not the theatre. So the people mentioned here are friends from the area where he lived and worked for much of his career.10. Pierrot is sometimes used for clown or harlequin, sometimes for someone a bit dim or stupid, sometimes as a person's name, or as a diminutive of Pierre, but also sometimes synonymous with "mec" or "type", ie just an ordinary person which is how I think it is intended here11. ie discovered how to stay in tune with each other12. lit: "having passed"