Partons Vite

For as long as Wally has been trying to trying to impress the French language into my life (roughly 4 years now), he has stressed the importance of listening to French music. His argument is that by listening to French bands, I will enjoy learning new vocabulary and will hear the proper pronunciation.

"How do you think I learned English?" he asked. "Guns 'N' Roses".

It came up again a few weeks ago when I had Wally and Benoit over for dinner. While Wally pondered a French band that I might enjoy, (and he would approve of...which leaves very few options), I shot holes in his plan.

"What am I going to learn from French music, anyway?" I asked. "Nothing but 'je t'aime', 'je t'aime'. I don't need that stuff." In the country of love, what else could they sing about? I do have one Edith Piaf CD, and that's all she seems to have to say.

But I'm not a completely lost cause. A few months ago, when Dave and I were in Saturn, the French equivalent of a Best Buy, trying out computer speakers, I heard a catchy French song. As Dave turned different sets of speakers on and off, I ran to each one, trying to catch some of the words. All I could really hear was "mon coeur", which is "my heart", and pretty darned useless when one is Google searching lyrics.

Some months later, on another trip to Saturn, I heard it again. Again, I strained to hear the lyrics, and this time I could only catch "mon dieu" (my God), which is also pretty difficult to narrow down. I even ran around the store a bit, looking for an employee to tell me the name of the song. Of course, trying to get any help in a store in France - for something you want to buy, let alone the name of a song - is useless.

And then on Tuesday morning, after I had dropped David off at work and was cruising along the quiet country roads to Meru, I found myself humming along to a familiar song on the radio. Mon coeur, mon coeur, etc. It was my song! And this time, I managed to catch a few more words, to get a full line: "Evidemment, tu es mon coeur". Obviously, you are my heart. Well that's just plain cute. Maybe I could like French music after all.

Once in the office, I Googled the line. Google gave me nothing, but proposed an alternative: "Evidemment, tu l'aime encore." Could I have been that wrong in my understanding? I clicked on the link and confirmed the other key lyrics, "mon dieu, mon dieu". I'd found my song!

The name is "Partons Vite" (roughly "Let's Go Quick"), by Kaolin (and right now Wally is cringing).

So, to show you just how bad my French comprehension is, the real line, "Evidemment, tu l'aime encore" does not mean "Obviously, you are my heart," but "Obviously, you still love him".

Wow. French music just went from cute to tragic.

Audrey (see also: Benoit's wife) once told me that all French movies are about the same thing: two people in love who can't be together. Well it seems that their music is along the same lines. Now that I knew that it wasn't all cutesy lovey stuff, I downloaded the song and printed the lyrics. I have been listening to it obsessively for the past two days, and am happy to be learning how to say the words properly.

Unfortunately, having seen the lyrics and listened to them a few dozen times, I've realized that the rest of the song is pretty cutesy. But now I know how to pronounce "Dance in my arms", "I want to listen to your heart", and of course, "Je t'aime".

Partons Vite