Sarah Brightman - Baïlèro

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

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

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

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

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

 
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last modified: 15 July 2018