Sarah Brightman - Baïlèro

[Lyrics corrected from vocal score]

Pastré, dè dèlaï l'aïo,
A gaïré dé buon tèn,
Dio lou baïlèro lèrô,
Lèrô lèrô lèrô lèrô baïlèro lô.

Pastré, lou prat faï flour,
Li cal gorda toun troupèl,
Dio lou baïlèro lèrô,
Lèrô lèrô lèrô lèrô baïlèro lô.

Pastré, couçi foraï,
Èn obal io lou bèl rîou!,
Dio lou baïlèro lèrô,
Lèrô lèrô lèrô lèrô baïlèro lô.

                    [Lyrics as printed in "Eden" CD booklet]

Pastrè dè délaï l'aïo,
As gaïré dè buon tèms?
Dio lou baïlèro lèrô,
Lèrô lèrô lèrô lèrô baïlèro lô.

Pastré lou prat faï flour,
Li cal gorda toun troupel.
Dio lou baïlèro lèrô,
Lèrô lèrô lèrô lèrô baïlèro lô.

Pastré couci foraï,
En obal io lou bel riou!
Dio lou baïlèro lèrô,
Lèrô lèrô lèrô lèrô baïlèro lô.


Music and lyrics: Traditional, adapted by Frank Peterson.

This is actually one of the Songs of the Auvergne collected by the French composer Joseph Canteloube; several artists have recorded songs from this collection

The Auvergne is an region in France, west of Lyon. The language spoken there, Auvergnat, is a dialect of the Occitan (aka Languedoc/Provençal) language, which is still spoken by a decent percentage of the population of southern France today. It is rarely heard of, however, because the French government refuses to give it any official recognition or status, and they brush the language aside by saying it is only a "dialect" of French, which is a lie. Occitan in fact, is a Romance language much older than French. There is also a law in France saying that only French can be used in public.

[Thanks to Mark Valencia and Steven Knapstad for info.]

===> See also the Chants d'Auvergne article on Wikipeda

From: Eden (1998).
And from: Classics (2001).

Source of the lyrics: the CD-booklet, with some corrections by me
(the Eden booklet is known to have many typos ...).

These corrections are based on the vocal score, which I in 2018 found on the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) website.
These complete lyrics read as follows:

Pastré, dè dèlaï l'aïo, a gaïré dé buon tèn, dio lou baïlèro

È n'aï pas gaïré, è dio, tu, baïlèro lèrô

Pastré, lou prat faï flour, li cal gorda toun troupèl, dio lou baïlèro

L'èrb' ès pu fin' ol prat d'oïçi, baïlèro lèrô

Pastré, couçi foraï, èn obal io lou bèl rîou!, dio lou baïlèro

Espèromè, té baô çirca, baïlèro lèrô

From that score we can see that the "lèrô" in the 3-rd line and the complete 4-th line of each of Sarah's stanzas were added to the lyrics by Sarah and/or Frank Peterson. We can also see that there are actually short stanzas in between those Sarah sings that were left out, and that these lines are the source of the added "lèrô".  

Concert version

Sarah sang this number also during her 1997 In Concert tour and is on the video / DVD of that concert; see and hear Sarah sing it on YouTube
The lyrics of that version are, however, different from those given above, which come from the later released CD Eden. [Thanks to Sally Weise for reminding me of this in 2018, after which I updated this page.]

Two things stand out in this change: after the first and second stanza Sarah sings another line or 2, and the third stanza is missing. Putting things together, I think these are the lyrics of the concert version:

Pastré, dè dèlaï l'aïo,
A gaïré dé buon tèn,
Dio lou baïlèro lèrô,
Lèrô lèrô lèrô lèrô baïlèro lô.

È n'aï pas gaïré, è dio, tu, baïlèro lèrô,
Lèrô lèrô lèrô lèrô baïlèro lô.

Pastré, lou prat faï flour,
Li cal gorda toun troupèl,
Dio lou baïlèro lèrô,
Lèrô lèrô lèrô lèrô baïlèro lô.

L'èrb' ès pu fin' ol prat d'oïçi, baïlèro lèrô,
Lèrô lèrô lèrô lèrô baïlèro lô.

 

Translation in English

The song is in the Auvergnat language and a translation of the above lines was sent to me by Adelaide Apparently the words "baïlèro lô" are not translatable.
Baïlèro     --     Shepherd's Song

Shepherd across the river,
You're hardly having a good time,
Sing baïlèro lèrô

Shepherd, the meadows are in bloom.
You should graze your flock on this side,
Sing baïlèro lèrô

Shepherd, the water divides us,
And I can't cross it,
Sing baïlèro lèrô

Adelaide informs me that Sarah does not sing the entire song as it appears on her Virgin classics recording of Chants d'Auvergne (7243 5 61120 2 5); the translation given on that recording reads in full:
Shepherd across the river,
You're hardly having a good time,
Sing baïlèro lèrô
No, I'm not,
And you, too, can sing baïlèro

Shepherd, the meadows are in bloom.
You should graze your flock on this side,
Sing baïlèro lèrô
The grass is greener in the meadows on this side,
Baïlèro lèrô

Shepherd, the water divides us,
And I can't cross it,
Sing baïlèro lèrô
Then I'll come down and find you,
Baïlèro lèrô

 
The above mentioned vocal score contains a translation into French, which I found only later. It reads like this:
Pâtre, par delà l'eau, tu n'as guère de bon temps, dis, le baïlèro

Je n'en ai guère, et toi, dis, baïlèro lèrô

Pâtre, l'herbe est en fleurs, viens-y garder ton troupeau, dis le baïlèro

L'herbe est meilleure viens ici, baïlèro lèrô

Pâtre, l'eau nous sépare, et je ne puis traverser, dis le baïlèro

Je rais descendre te chercher, baïlèro lèrô

 

Versions by other singers & musicians

Many other singers and/or musicians have made a version of the number, as a seach on Internet easily reveals.
At first I mentioned a few here, but since it is impossible to be complete, I thought it better not to mention any.

 
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last modified: 15 July 2018