Here are the lyrics and a translation to the first song of the 1st CD, i.e. Brittany. The translations are just what the lyrics mean, no more and I hope no less!
CD 1 BRITTANY (Leaflet)
You can listen to the whole CD here
You can listen to the recording here
APPROCHEZ POUR ENTENDRE LA CHANSON D'UNE FILLE
(French)
Approchez pour entendre la chanson d'une fille (bis)
La chanson d'une fille belle comme le jour
C'est son coquin de frère qui veut lui faire l'amour.
Son père aussi sa mère vont à la promenade (bis)
Appelait sa (1) servante d'aller voir au chemin
D'aller voir si son père ou si sa mère revient.
L'a pris, l'a embrassée (2), l'a montée dans sa chambre (bis)
En lui disant : "Petite, quoique tu es ma sœur ,
Il faut que je te dise, où (3) j'aurai ton honneur !"
"Pensez à Dieu, pensez, pensez à Dieu mon frère (bis)
Pensez à Dieu mon frère, au grand Dieu tout-puissant
Aurais-tu le courage d'y mélir notre sang ?"
Le bruit fut entendu par tout le voisinage (bis)
Il fut jugé à pendre, à pendre ou à tuer
Dans la ville de Nantes, le jour d'un grand marché.
Coirault : 9711 Le frère amoureux de sa sœur I
RADdO : 05296.COME CLOSER/NEAR TO HEAR THE SONG OF A GIRL
Come closer/near to hear the song of a girl,
The song of a girl as beautiful as the day
The rascal of his brother wants to make love to her.
His father and his mother go to have a walk
He told (called) his/her servant to check the way
To go to see if his father or if his mother comes back.
He took her, kissed/hugged her, took her in his bedroom
Telling her "Little one, though you are my sister,
I must tell you, where I'll have your honor!"
"Think of God, think, think of God, my brother
Think of God, my brother, of great God all-mighty
Would you have the courage to mix our bloods?"
The noise was heard by all the neighborhood
He was sentence to be hanged, be hanged or killed
In the town of Nantes, on a day of great market.
(1) As in all the Romance languages, we only know whether it's his or her by the context and here I'd say it's her. Ditto for the bedroom.
(2) In those old songs you can never know for sure the meaning of the verb "embrasser". It originally meant "to hug" "to take in one's arms" (Cf Sp. "abrazar") while to kiss was the verb "baiser" (hence the noun "un baiser" = a kiss). The meaning of the verb "baiser" came to mean "to fuck" though the meaning of the noun kept its original meaning so far, so the verb "embrasser" passed to mean "to kiss" while to hug needed to be formulated as "to take in one's arms". The shift happened before the end of the 17th century because Molière used the double entendre in one of his play, but you don't know how old those songs are –at least I don't- and when did the shift in the meaning happen outside the capital. The verb is as rude as its English equivalent.
Well, it could be that he kissed her or that he hugged her though I suppose that he first hugged her and not kissed her before taking her in his/her bedroom for she'd have protested before but who knows for sure?
Later I've been thinking that "L'a prise, l'a embrassée, l'a montée dans sa chambre" could also translate as "He took/grabbed/seized her, kissed her, carried her upstairs in her/his bedroom" which would explain that he kissed her and didn't protest wildly. Btw, I copied it as "l'a prise, l'a embrassée..." while it's copied as "l'a prit...". It can't be. Either it's "La prit", preterit tense (= took her) or it's "l'a prise", present perfect tense (lit.= "has taken her"). In Fr. the past participle conjugated with "avoir" (to have) agrees with the direct object when the latter is placed before the verb the same way it does in Oc and Italian. Besides, unlike in the other Romance languages (though I don't know about Romanian) the preterit tense in Fr is now only used in literature, songs included but you can find both tenses in the same song with no difference as to the aspect of the verb, it's just about rhyming and the number of syllables.
(3) I really can't figure out what this "où" stands for: though "I must tell you where I'll have your honor" indeed has a meaning, it doesn't make sense. I'd rather think this "ou" sound is the result of some mishearing or some misinterpretation, it could be "oui, j'aurai ton honneur", it'd make more sense. Unless it'd imply "the 'where' is here".
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