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.
Verlaine
Charles Trenet Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Des violons
De l'automne,
Blessent mon cœur
D'une langueur monotone.
Tout suffocant
Et blême, quand
Je me souviens
Des jours anciens et je pleure;
Et je m'en vais
Au vent mauvais
Qui m'emporte
Deçà, delà
Pareil à la feuille morte
Charles Trenet's song Verlaine is a beautiful composition that creates a melancholy atmosphere through its poetic lyrics and melody. The song begins with the singer describing how the long sobs of autumn's violins wound his heart with a monotonous languor. The use of personification in the opening lines of the song adds depth to the plaintive emotions portrayed in the lyrics. The sadness continues to build as the singer remembers the old days and weeps at their memory. The imagery of a person being carried away by the bad wind like a dead leaf reflects the profound feeling of emptiness and the desire to escape time.
The song is a tribute to the 19th-century French poet Paul Verlaine. It is believed that Charles Trenet's inspiration for the song came from Verlaine's poem "Chanson d'automne," which included the first two lines of the song. Trenet added his lyrics to the melody and created a masterpiece that continues to evoke emotions from listeners around the world. The song has been remade multiple times and used in various films, including Jean-Pierre Melville's 1962 film "Le Doulos," Alain Resnais' 1961 film "L'année dernière à Marienbad," and Ridley Scott's 1982 film "Blade Runner."
Line by Line Meaning
Les sanglots longs Des violons De l'automne, Blessent mon cœur D'une langueur monotone.
The melancholic sound of autumn violins, with their prolonged notes, pierces my heart with a continuous feeling of sadness and burnout.
Tout suffocant Et blême, quand Sonne l'heure, Je me souviens Des jours anciens et je pleure;
As soon as the clock chimes, I feel suffocated and pale, as I am reminded of past memories that are shrouded in sorrow and make me weep.
Et je m'en vais Au vent mauvais Qui m'emporte Deçà, delà Pareil à la feuille morte
Thus, I leave everything to the mercy of the unrelenting winds that carry me to and fro, just like a lifeless leaf being swept away by the fall gales.
Contributed by Alex L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.