Lyr. Add: GERMINE
French Canadian

1
C'est la jeune Germine, assise sur son lit.
A son château arrivent trois gentils cavaliers.
Ont demandé Germine, fillette à marier.
2
Je ne suis pas fillette, fillette à marier.
Je me suis mariée à quinze ans et demi.
A plus de sept année s, mon mari est parti.
3
Ah, bonjour donc, madame ! Peut-on loger ici?
C'est en l'honneur du prince d'Amboise et d'Amboisi',
Le plus joli gendarme qu'y a dans le pays !
4
Ah non, certes, dit-elle, je n'loge personne ici !
Rendez-vous chez sa mère à ce château fleuri;
Ell' loge tout le monde pour l'amour de son fils.
5
Ah, bonjour donc, madame, peut-on loger ici?
C'est en l'honneur du prince d'Amboise et d'Amboisi'.
-Ah oui, certes, dit-elle, pour l'amour de mon fils !
6
Quand ils fur't mis à table, à l'heure du souper,
Ils ne voulaient pas boire, ni boire, ni manger.
Mais il leur faut Germine assise à leur coté.
7
Ah, bonjour donc, Germaine ! Chez nous, trois cavaliers,
Mais ils ne veul't pas boire, ni boire, ni manger.
Ils désir't trop Germine, l'avoir à leur coté.
8
-O mère, méchante mère, allez-vous en d'ici !
Si vous n'étiez la mère, la mère de mon mari.
Je vous ferais jeter en bas du pont-levis.
9
-Partons, cher camarades ! Nos chevaux sont sellés.
A la tabl' de Germine, je veux aller souper.
Dans le lit de Germine, je veux aller coucher.
10
-Germine, belle Germine ! Quvre-moi, ton mari !
-Non, je ne croirai pas que tu es mon mari
Avant que tu me dies quel jour que tu m'as pri' !
11
-Te souviens-tu, Germine, du dix-sept au matin?
Tu avais à tes noces tes oncles et tes cousins? (bis)
12
-Non, je ne croirai pas que tu es mon mari
Avant que tu me dies quel cheval j'avait-i'? (bis)
13
-T'en souviens-tu, Germine? Ton cheval de Paris ...
-Non, je ne croirai pas que tu es mon mari
Avant que tu me dies quell' robe j'avait-i'?
14
-T'en souviens-tu, Germine? Ta robe de satin gris?
-Ah non, je ne crois pas que tu es mon mari.
Donne-moi des remarques de la première nuit.
15
-T'en souviens-tu, Germine? Tes anneaux d'or uni ...
Je t'ai serré' si fort, si fort dedans mes bras,
Que ton anneau cassa. Germine, le voilè !
16
-Servant's belles servantes ! Accourez tout's ici !
Allumez les flambeaux aux quatre coins du lit.
Je vais ouvrir la porte tout' grande à mon mari !

Translation-

1
O fair Germaine the loely lay sleeping on her bed
When to her castle gate three gallant young knights sped.
Each asked the fair Germaine if she with him would wed.
2
"I am no more a maiden, O no more shall I wed !
When I was but sixteen, I was a youthful bride.
Seven years has tarried my husband from my side."
3
"Greetings to you, fair lady ! May we have lodging here?
In honour of the brave young prince of Ambroisie.
Open your gates and have compassion on us three !"
4
"O nevermore shall enter a knight within my gates !
But if you take the path to yonder wooded dell,
There lives my husband's mother, she will lodge you well."
5
"Good morrow to you, lady, O will you lodge us here?
In honour of the brave young prince of Ambroisie?"
Welcome to you, young gallants, you may lodge with me."
6
When they were at the table, before the goodly fare,
They would not taste of food, nor drink a drop of wine.
O they were torn with love, love for the fair Germaine.
7
"Germaine, my dearest daughter, three knights have come to stay.
But they are pale and wan, and spurn my goodly cheer:
For they are torn with love, with love for you, my dear !"
8
"O mother, cruel mother ! Leave me in peace alone.
It is respect for you that will not let me throw
You from the draw-bridge high into the moat below."
9
"O comrades, let us gallop away to fair germaine !
'Tis only at her home that I shall eat or drink,
Only upon her bed into a slumber sink."
10
"Germaine, O lovely Germaine ! Open the gate to me !
Your husband has returned !" "You lie, unless you name
The day when first to you a youthful bride I came."
11
"Do you remember, darling, the seventeenth of May?
The day when all your kin came to make merry cheer?" (bis)
12
"You lie unless you can tell me what horse I rode that day.
If you can not recall, then you must go away." (bis)
13
"Do you remember, darling, your palfrey white and grey?""
If you do speak the truth, then tell me what I wore
When I appeared that day, within the bridal door?"
14
"Do you remember, darling, your dress of satin grey?"
"No, no, you are not he, unless you tell me true:
On our first married night, tell me, what did you do?"
15
"Do you remember, darling, your rings of beaten gold ...
I held you, O so close, so close in my embrace,
Here is the ring that broke, wrapped in a piece of lace !"
16
"Make haste, page-boys and maidens ! My ladies all make haste !
Now light me torches four to place by my bed-side,
And to my husband throw the gate-way open wide !"

With musical score, pp. 65-68.
Marius Barbeau, 1964, Folk-Songs of Old Quebec, National Museum of Canada Bull. No. 75.

"This complainte is a lyrical reminiscence of the Crusades." Possibly speaks of Guilhem de Beauvoir, who sailed the seas and was away a long time. The ancestral song is the "Return of the Crusader." The song is better known in French Canada than in France; seventeen versions have been recorded along the Saint Lawrence and in Acadia, an area where the settlers were mostly Norman.
Comparison is made with "The Swineherd."

Twenty-eight verses are in the extended version given by Marius Barbeau, with two melodies, in Le Rossignol y Chante, 1962, Part One of his three-volume Répertoire de la Chanson Folklorique Française au Canada.

The song is widespread, from Portugal to Greece, Germany to England.