Charles Trenet came from a Music Hall tradition and lived in an epoch when, even in
French cabaret, certain subject matter was taboo. As with Marie Lloyd in England,
Music Hall artists became adept at disguising taboo subjects using word-play, puns,
and innuendo. The audience were in the know and were thus able to enjoy bawdy
subject matter without ostensibly outraging polite society.
Le Jardin Extraordinaire owes something to that tradition because on one level it is a
song, seemingly narrated by a child (Papa… Maman…), about a fantastic
garden where ducks speak English, statues dance and frogs sing to the red-faced
moon.
But as with all magical gardens, sex very soon enters the scene in the form of a
beautiful girl who simply propositions him: « Vous me plaisez beaucoup, j’aime les hommes dont les yeux brillent ! » (“You please me a lot, I like men with sparkling eyes!”). There are references to the gloomy and perverse city where people in bars trade their love. To escape this Gomorrah, the narrator says he had to find ‘a sweet little love, a little flirt of twenty years’ (Il fallait bien trouver… Une gentille amourette, un petit flirt de vingt ans).
Trenet was gay and it is hard not to read into this song coded references to cruising in the
Jardin de Tuileries, a well-known cruising spot. From the introduction of the ‘young flirt’
the subtext becomes decidedly sexual but in such a way that anyone who remarked on it
could be accused of having a ‘dirty mind’. The rejoinder to that is the explicit introduction
into the text of a supposed childish fantasy references to prostitution and perversity
and the gloomy depression of a large metropolis.
Like Alice in Wonderland, he wandered into this garden by chance and found himself in
a magical playground where pleasure is easily had.
Le Jardin Extraordinaire, Charles Trenet
| Il y a des canards qui parlent anglais |
| There are ducks who speak English, |
| Je leur donne du pain, ils remuent leur derrière |
| I give them bread, they wiggle their behinds |
| En me disant « Thank you very much, Monsieur Trenet » |
| At me, saying, “Thank you very much, Monsieur Trenet.” |
| On y voit aussi des statues |
| We also see there, statues |
| Qui se tiennent tranquilles tout le jour, dit-on |
| That stay tranquil all day long, people say, |
| Mais moi, je sais que, dès la nuit venue, |
| But me, I know that when the night comes, |
| Elles s’en vont danser sur le gazon |
| They go dancing on the lawn. |
| Papa, c’est un jardin extraordinaire: |
| Daddy, it’s an extraordinary garden, |
| Il y a des oiseaux qui tiennent un buffet |
| There are birds that have a buffet, |
| Ils vendent du grain, des petits morceaux de gruyère |
| They sell grain, morsels of Gruyère, |
| Comme clients ils ont Monsieur le maire et le Sous-Préfet |
| And have clients like the Mayor and the Sub-Prefect. |
| Il fallait bien trouver, dans cette grande ville maussade |
| I really had to find, in this big gloomy town |
| Où les touristes s’ennuient au fond de leurs autocars, |
| Where the tourists are bored, deep inside their coaches, |
| Il fallait bien trouver un lieu pour la promenade |
| I really had to find a place to walk, |
| J’avoue que ce samedi-là je suis entré par hasard… |
| I confess that Saturday I entered by chance, |
| Dans, dans, dans… |
| In, in, in… |
| Un jardin extraordinaire, |
| An extraordinary garden, |
| Loin des noirs buildings et des passages cloutés |
| Far from black buildings and pedestrian crossings, |
| Y avait un bal que donnaient des primevères |
| There was a ball that spilled primroses |
| Dans un coin de verdure, les petites grenouilles chantaient |
| In a green area, the small frogs sing |
| Une chanson pour saluer la lune |
| A song to salute the moon |
| Dès que celle-ci parut, toute rose d’émotion, |
| As soon as it appeared, all red with emotion. |
| Elles entonnèrent, je crois, la valse brune |
| They sang, I believe, The Brown Waltz, |
| Une vieille chouette me dit: « Quelle distraction ! » |
| An old owl said to me, “What a distraction!” |
| Maman, dans ce jardin extraordinaire, |
| Mummy, in this extraordinary garden |
| Je vis soudain passer la plus belle des filles |
| I saw suddenly pass the most beautiful girl, |
| Elle vint près de moi, et là me dit sans manières: |
| She came close to me and simply said, |
| « Vous me plaisez beaucoup, j’aime les hommes dont les yeux brillent ! » |
| “You please me a lot, I like men with sparkling eyes!” |
| Il fallait bien trouver, dans cette grande ville perverse, |
| I had to find, in this big perverted town, |
| Une gentille amourette, un petit flirt de vingt ans |
| A sweet little love, a little flirt of twenty years, |
| Qui me fasse oublier que l’amour est un commerce |
| Who makes me forget that love is a trade |
| Dans les bars de la cité, |
| In the bars of the city. |
| Oui, mais oui mais pas dans… |
| Yes, but yes, but not in… |
| Dans, dans, dans… |
| In, in, in… |
| Mon jardin extraordinaire |
| My extraordinary garden, |
| Un ange du Bizarre, un agent nous dit: |
| An Angel from Bizarre, an agent tells us: |
| « Etendez-vous sur la verte bruyère, |
| “Stretch out on the green heather, |
| Je vous jouerai du luth pendant que vous serez réunis » |
| I will play the lute for you while you will be reunited.” |
| Cet agent était un grand poète |
| This agent was a great poet, |
| Mais nous préférions, Artémise et moi, |
| But we would prefer, Artemise and I, |
| La douceur d’une couchette secrète |
| The sweetness of a secret berth, |
| Qu’elle me fit découvrir au fond du bois |
| That she revealed to me deep in the woods. |
| Poir ceux qui veulent savoir où le jardin se trouve, |
| For those who want to know where the garden is found, |
| Il est, vous le voyez, au coeur de ma chanson |
| It is, you see it, at the heart of my song. |
| J’y vole parfois quand un chagrin m’éprouve |
| I fly there sometimes when I feel sorrow, |
| Il suffit pour ça d’un peu d’imagination ! |
| All it needs is a little imagination, |
| Il suffit pour ça d’un peu d’imagination ! |
| All it needs is a little imagination, |
| Il suffit pour ça d’un peu d’imagination |
| All it needs is a little imagination. |