Charlotte Church -- Plaisir d'Amour

lyrics my translation *)
Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment,
Chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.
J'ai tout quitté pour l'ingrate Sylvie,
Elle me quitte et prend un autre amant .
Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment,
Chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.
"Tant que cette eau coulera doucement
Vers ce ruisseau qui borde la prairie,
Je t'aimerai", me répétait Sylvie.
L'eau coule encor, elle a changé pourtant.
Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment,
Chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.
The joys of love are but a moment long,
The heartache of love lasts for life.
I have left everything for ungrateful Sylvia,
But she left me and took another lover.
The joys of love are but a moment long,
The heartache of love lasts for life.
"As long as the water flows gently
To the stream that borders the meadow,
I will love you", repeated Sylvia to me.
The water still flows, yet she has changed.
The joys of love are but a moment long,
The heartache of love lasts for life.


Music: Giovanni Martini (arr. Julian Smith)
Lyrics: Jean Lenoir

From: Charlotte Church (1999).

Source of the lyrics: the CD-booklet, with thanks to Jim Waters.
Two corrections are made, thanks to Olivier Laruaz-Gaillard: lines 3 and 9 have "Silvie", and line 4 has "amans" in the CD-booklet.

 
*) Notes on the translation

I did this translation myself, even though my French is rather poor, simply by using a dictionary and thinking what could be meant. (AltaVista's translator was no real help in this.)
Thanks to Sam Waring and Olivier Laruaz-Gaillard for improvements and information.

 

Various versions

As the difference between the Charlotte Church and Vicki Brown lyrics show, there are several versions of Plaisir d'amour around, as happens often with folk songs. See my page The joys of love / Plaisir d'amour for some notes and a fully English version.

 
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created: 17 February 2000
last modified: 26 January 2003