Help/Lyr Add: Sur les Bancs de Terre-Neuve

Subject: Lyr Add: SUR LES BANCS DE TERRE-NEUVE
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Sep 05 - 10:51 PM

Lyr. Add: SUR LES BANCS DE TERRE-NEUVE
Normandy, Traditional

Nous voilà bien du monde ici (bis*)
Nous voilà bien du monde là
Celui que j'aime n'y est pas
Légère, légèrement

Sur les bancs de Terre-Neuve
Mon bien aimé m'attend (bis*)

Ah je le vois venir là-bas

Monté sur un cheval noir et blanc

A sa main droite tient un gant blanc

Et de l'autre un étui d'argent

Mes amourettes y sont dedans

Elles y sont bien étroitement

Elles y seront plus largement

Entre Paris et Rouen

Et puis de Rouen jusqu'à Fécamp.
(bis*)- twice
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Perhaps I should have labeled this thread Help! I am not sure how the lines are repeated. I have sheet music for the first verse plus the next two lines (verse). If anyone is interested, I will scan them. A rough translation also would help.

There are a number of songs about Newfoundland; the versions in English of "The Banks of Newfoundland" mostly have been posted in Mudcat. I would like to learn something of the Normandy-Breton songs of Newfoundland, but without French, it is hard times.

Subject: RE: Help/Lyr Add: Sur les Bancs de Terre-Neuve
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 12 Sep 05 - 08:34 AM

Rough? OK, here goes:
There's a crowd here, there's a crowd there, my lover is not among them, light, lightly
On the banks of Newfoundland my beloved waits
Ah, I see him coming in the distance
He rides a black & white horse
A white glove in his right hand
And in the other, a silver (?? missing letters? Maybe die?)
My dowry is in it
Crowded now
But it'll have more room
Between Paris and Rouen
And from Rouen till Fecamp.

Usually these songs repeat the 1st line then not the second, which is repeated as the first line of the next verse.

Subject: RE: Help/Lyr Add: Sur les Bancs de Terre-Neuve
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Sep 05 - 01:10 PM

Yes, there is a missing word- étui- box or little container
Et de l'autre un étui d'argent

Thanks for the translation. Much better than rough. But I still wonder about 'light, lightly.'
? swiftly

---

Correction made.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Help/Lyr Add: Sur les Bancs de Terre-Neuve
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 12 Sep 05 - 04:48 PM

I don't think so - but then again, "light" here is feminine, so it doesn't refer to the beloved, who is male...

Subject: RE: Help/Lyr Add: Sur les Bancs de Terre-Neuve
From: GUEST,Terre-Neuva
Date: 03 Jan 22 - 07:33 PM

"Un étui" is probably best translated as 'a case' in most cases, although in the context of this song 'box' works fine.

As for "légère, légèrement" it can be translated as 'light, lightly', 'soft, softly' or 'gentle, gently'.
In my opinion, its semantic function is not to add any precision to the text or qualify specific parts of it but imbue the whole song with a reverie-like or dreamy-like quality (as can be done in photography w special filters or on stage w fog or flood lights). The first time I ever heard it -in Normandy, as a young adult- it produced a strong esthetical impression (vision-like) on me; of backlit distant silhouettes against 'glittering' golden sands (as can be experienced on the coast of Normandy esp at both the Mont Saint Michel and Somme river bays) slowly growing more identifyable as they approach. When I read the lyrics at some later stage, I realised how little of that 'sands' vision was in the actual words. It seems the words "là-bas" (over-there), "bancs" (sand-bancs) and "légèrement" (light) were enough to imprint a whole Impressionist- or Turner-style scene in my mind's eye.
Where did the light come from? I did not speak English at the time so léger=light could not have suggested it. Could the sole mention of Fécamp have triggered it?

Subject: RE: Help/Lyr Add: Sur les Bancs de Terre-Neuve
From: Monique
Date: 04 Jan 22 - 04:18 AM

Song lead by Catherine Perrier
Recording by Jean-François Dutertre
Rendition by Mireille Haquet
Recording of a slightly different version from the Frémeaux set "Une anthologie des musiques traditionnelles".