Some of his best known songs include "Boum...!", "Y'A D'La Joie", "Que Reste-T-Il De Nos Amours?", "Ménilmontant", and "Douce France". His catalog of songs is enormous, numbering close to a thousand. While many of his songs mined relatively conventional topics such as love, Paris, and nostalgia for his younger days, what set Trenet's songs apart were their personal, poetic, sometimes quite eccentric qualities, often infused with a warm wit. Some of his songs had unconventional subject matter, with whimsical imagery bordering on the surreal. "Y'A D'La Joie" evokes "joy" through a series of disconnected (though all vaguely phallic) images, including that of a subway car shooting out of its tunnel into the air, the Eiffel Tower crossing the street and a baker making excellent bread. The lovers engaged in a minuet in "La Polka Du Roi" reveal themselves at length to be "no longer human": they are made of wax and trapped in the Musée Grévin. Many of his hits from the 1930s and 1940s effectively combine the melodic and verbal nuance of French song with American swing rhythms.
Other artists have had hits with some of Trenet's songs, such as the American Bobby Darin's success with "Beyond the Sea" ("La Mer"). Darin's version preserved the charming chording of Trenet's original which the author dashed off in about an hour in 1946 as an homage to the French coastline, once again free of battleships and the scars of World War II.
Other Trenet songs were recorded by such popular French singers as Maurice Chevalier, Jean Sablon, and Frehel.
La mer
Charles Trenet Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Qu'on voit danser
Le long des golfes clairs
A des reflets d'argent
La mer
Des reflets changeants
Sous la pluie
La mer
Au ciel d'été
Confond ses blancs moutons
Avec les anges si purs
La mer
Bergère d'azur, infinie
Voyez
Près des étangs
Ces grands roseaux mouillés
Voyez
Ces oiseaux blancs
Et ces maisons rouillées
La mer
Les a bercés
Le long des golfes clairs
Et d'une chanson d'amour
La mer
A bercé mon cœur pour la vie
La mer
Qu'on voit danser
Le long des golfes clairs
A des reflets d'argent
La mer
Des reflets changeants
Sous la pluie
La mer
Au ciel d'été confond
Ses blancs moutons
Avec les anges si purs
La mer
Bergère d'azur, infinie
Voyez (voyez)
Près des étangs (près des étangs)
Ces grands roseaux mouillés (voyez ces roseaux)
Voyez (voyez)
Ces oiseaux blancs (ces oiseaux blancs)
Et ces maisons rouillées (la-la-la-la-la-la)
La mer
Les a bercés
Le long des golfes clairs
Et d'une chanson d'amour
La mer
A bercé mon cœur pour la vie
The opening lines of Charles Trenet's iconic song La mer paint a picturesque scene of the sea's dance along the clear gulf. The shimmering and radiating silver reflections of the sea presented therein. The use of descriptive language continues in the second verse, drawing parallels between the white sheep-like clouds of summer skies with the pure angels hovering above them, as if on a cloudy white bed, and the sea is portrayed as an infinite azure shepherd.
The chorus repeats the opening verse with the same description of the sea's reflection of silver and changing color under the rain. The third verse is a picture painting of the sea's surroundings. We can appreciate the magnificent sight of the vast and wet rose bushes, white birds, and rusty houses near the ponds. Finally, the chorus returns, ending with a declaration that the sea cradled the singer with the great love song they will carry with them for life.
At its core, La mer forgoes any complex emotions or meaning to convey a simple appreciation of nature's beauty, the sea, and its surroundings. The song's lyrics present an idyllic and romanticized vision of the sea's gentle sway and the moments of peace it brings.
Line by Line Meaning
La mer
The sea
Qu'on voit danser
That we see dancing
Le long des golfes clairs
Along the clear gulfs
A des reflets d'argent
Has silver reflections
La mer
The sea
Des reflets changeants
Changing reflections
Sous la pluie
Under the rain
La mer
The sea
Au ciel d'été
In the summer sky
Confond ses blancs moutons
Confuses its white sheep
Avec les anges si purs
With the angels so pure
La mer
The sea
Bergère d'azur, infinie
Azure shepherdess, infinite
Voyez
See
Près des étangs
Near the ponds
Ces grands roseaux mouillés
These tall wet reeds
Voyez
See
Ces oiseaux blancs
These white birds
Et ces maisons rouillées
And these rusty houses
La mer
The sea
Les a bercés
Rocked them
Le long des golfes clairs
Along the clear gulfs
Et d'une chanson d'amour
And with a love song
La mer
The sea
A bercé mon cœur pour la vie
Rocked my heart for life
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Charles Trenet
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind