Worldvert

Subject: Worldverts
From: Paul Burke
Date: 12 Jul 18 - 09:13 AM

Which is of course French for mondegreens.

I was whistling that lovely Françoise Hardy song, "Tous les garçons et les filles de mon age" just now, and remembered my first understanding of it. They "promenent dans la Rue de Pardieu", I took it to be a street name, rather than "deux par deux". It worked for a fifteen yesr old, never mind that it means something like Bloody Hell Street.

I wonder how many others have had their mistranslations revised over the years.

Subject: RE: Worldvert
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jul 18 - 09:49 AM

I think you mean Mondevert. If you want the entire word to be French. Otherwise, you simply switched out which end is French.

Subject: RE: Worldvert
From: Jack Campin
Date: 12 Jul 18 - 10:03 AM

Conversely let's hear it for Eartha Kitt, who got the sounds of "Üsküdar'a gider iken" phoneme-perfect, though it was 30 years before I had any idea what the sounds I'd heard when I was 8 actually meant.

Subject: RE: Worldvert
From: Paul Burke
Date: 12 Jul 18 - 10:52 AM

Not at all. mondegreen is half French, half English...

Sonny Lemma Tina is of course too well known to mention.

Subject: RE: Worldvert
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jul 18 - 02:45 PM

Whatever.

As a child I heard my father frequently sing Ezra Pound's Ancient Music, usually in close proximity to Sumer is Icumen in. I had been a grownup for a long time before I figured out that the second line in the second stanza wasn't "egg you hath my ham." It sounded like a nod to Dr. Seuss.

Subject: RE: Worldvert
From: fat B****rd
Date: 12 Jul 18 - 04:09 PM

I always liked the Andrews Sisters "Dear Mister Shane"

Subject: RE: Worldvert
From: Paul Burke
Date: 13 Jul 18 - 01:10 PM

That was less than funny in my mother's day: it was sometimes rendered, with conscious antisemitism, as "You're mean Mr Sheen". And during a family singaround, when everyone was chorusing "adieu, my friends, adieu ", loudly staged whispered "aye, some of my best friends are Jews"... but that's not even a mondegreen, since he knew it.

My brother heard "Agnus Dei" as "aren't you staying"- you have to say it in Church Latin.

Leon Rosselson had an odd one. His version of "Le Déserteur" by Boris Vian starts "Messieurs qu'on dit les grands" rather than "Monsieur le Président". His French accent is even worse than mine.

Subject: RE: Worldvert
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Jul 18 - 01:20 PM

I thought the best church one was "blessed art thou, a monk swimmin' "

Nice to see you Paul.

DtG

Subject: RE: Worldvert
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jul 18 - 02:18 PM

That was the title of a book by Malachy McCort - I had no idea what it was about, not having been raised with a church background. Once it was explained I understood it immediately - I've met him, he's quite a flirt.