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Does anyone know of any french translations of some of the lyrics of Jake Thackery. I am giving one of JT’s cds to a french friend and was wondering how on earth I am going to translate the Bantam cock to him.
thanks
Douglas McleodDouglas
We do have some French members here and also some (English) who speak French, so maybe someone will be able to help you. Meantime, have you seen Michel’s post further down in the forum talking about a St. Georges Day event in Normandy on 26th April? Maybe your friend could go along there – it seems there may even be some of Jake’s French translations being performed.
Jake was a fluent French speaker himself and (according to things he said) he idolised Georges Brassens and translated some of his songs – eg The Gorilla.
Good luck!
Hi Douglas
I have just sent Pam a copy and mp 3 of the French adaptation of the Bantam Cock I made, among half a dozen “tradaptations” of Jake’s songs, for Sheila Thackray ( who has sadly also left us since …) a few years ago.
If you let me have your e.mail address I’ll be pleased to send the French text to you as well.Thank you Michel that would be brilliant. Pam has my email address now.
I am fascinated to see what you were able to do with this song. I particularly wanted to make the Bantam Cock understandable to him as he is a French rugby supporter.Douglas
I am happy to see you are pleased with my little job, Douglas.
I hope it will help to arouse your friend’s curiosity for the dozens of superb songs written by Jake !Michel, I wasn’t aware that Sheila Thackray had passed away – sad news if so. I would be interested to hear/read your French versions of Jake – you could email me on richardtobrien [at] gmail [dot] com. As I’ve posted here (http://www.jakethackray.com/forum/2-jakes-music/3486-shakespeare–brassens–thackray.html) I’m very interested in the line of reception from Brassens to Jake’s work. Do you know much about Brassens’s own literary/writing influences?
I speak pretty fluent French, but am astounded by the colloquial fluency of tralala and le cygne noir. Does anyone know if they were all his own work?
I know two French versions of THE BLACK SWANN, Jonathan. One of them is by Jake himself.
It’s the one I prefer and it’s a pity it is not known on my side of The Channel.
It’s very good and I’m sure that if someone like Renaud had recorded it it would have been a big success.Hi Richard
Sorry about the late discovery of your post here.
One day away from your talk in Stratford I hope you have received more help from Judith and Loïc than from me.
Congratulations anyway on your English version of LE FOSSOYEUR. I’ll certainly try to have a go at it !
And I’ll be happy to send you some of my “Jake in French” attempts.
The theme you are due to treat tomorrow convinces me that I should start with Jake’s GRANDAD.
Little relief from the heavy atmosphere of actual burials can be expected from the songs that are directly connected to these events, even with hypotheses such as “si du fond de la terre on voit le Bon Dieu …” ( beautifully rendered in your own version, by the way ), but a bit of distance from the dark reality and the feeling of impotence it entails allows minds lile Georges’s and Jake’s to offer us the benefit of some sort of escape, thanks to their powerful sense of humour !
That idea is certainly illustrated in the above-mentioned title. IIt’s also the case, of course, with such songs as Georges’s own “GRAND-PERE” or “LES FUNERAILLES D’ANTAN” and “THE JOLLY CAPTAIN”, to mention only a few examples.
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