The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #400   Message #43568
Posted By: JB3
29-Oct-98 - 03:26 AM
Thread Name: Req/ADD: French folk songs
Subject: Lyr Add: JANETON
Rechal, "Avec Mes Sabots" is a lovely folk-song that most French children know. I wish you would post it. I learned it many years ago during the vendage (while cutting the grapes). I also learned "Janeton" from a young french girl named Corinne:
JANETON

Janeton prends sa faucille
La rirette, la rirette
Janeton prends sa faucille
Et s'en va couper des joncs
Et s'en va couper des joncs

En chemin elle rencontre
Quatre et jeunes et beaux garçons

Le premier un peu timide
Lui chatouille le menton

Le deuxième un peu moins sage
Lui souleva son jupon

Le troisième encore moins sage
L'allongea sur le gazon

Ce que fit le quatrième
N'est pas dit dans la chanson

La morale de cette histoire
C'est que les hommes sont des cochons

La morale de cette morale
C'est que les femmes aiment les cochons!

How this song progresses from a maiden going out to cut corn(?), to meeting up with four less and less mannerly young men, to the conclusion that women love pigs, should probably be translated by someone who speaks French better than I do. As I mentioned, I learned this song from a co-worker while crawling beside or bending over the grapevines. Usually, we worked in pairs, one taking either side of the row. No one seemed to pay much attention to us until we got to the end, when invariably, all the men in the vineyard would stand and lustily sing along with the last verse!