Jacques Prévert / The Florist´s Shop

A man with flowers
By María Laura Parada

The Florist’s Shop

By Jacques Prévert

Jacques Prévert / En la tienda de la florista (De otros mundos)

A man enters a florist’s shop
and chooses some flowers
the florist wraps the flowers
the man puts his hand in his pocket
to look for some money
money to pay for the flowers
but at the same time he puts
suddenly
his hand on his heart
and he falls

At the same time that he falls
the money rolls to the ground
and then the flowers fall
at the same time as the man
at the same time as the money
and the florist stands still
with the money that is rolling
with the flowers that are spoiling
with the man that is dying
obviously everything here is very sad
and she must do something
the florist
but she doesn’t know what path to take
she doesn’t know
where to begin

There are so many things to do
with this man that is dying
these flowers that are spoiling
and this money
this money that is rolling
that just won’t stop rolling.

Jacques Prévert / Immense and Red

Immense and Red
By Jacques Prévert

Jacques Prévert / Immense et rouge (Rimbaud)

Immense and red

Above the Grand Palais

The winter sun appears

And disappears

Like it my heart will disappear

And all my blood will go

Go look for you

My love

My beauty

And find you

There where you are

Jacques Prévert / First Day

First Day

by Jacques Prévert

Jacquees Prévert / Premier jour (Rimbaud)
Jacques Prévert / Primer día (De otros mundos)

White sheets in a closet
Red sheets on a bed
A child in its mother
The mother in agony
The father in the hallway
The hallway in the house
The house in the town
The town in the night
Death in a cry
And the child in life

Jacques Prévert / For You My Love

Florecita quiteña
Quito, 2011
Photo by Triunfo Arciniegas

For You My Love

by Jacques Prévert

Jacques Prévert / Pour toi mon amour (Rimbaud) Jacques Prévert / Para ti mi amor (De otros mundos)

I went to the market, where they sell birds

and I bought some birds

for you

my love

I went to the market, where they sell flowers

and I bought some flowers

for you

my love

I went to the market, where they sell chains

and I bought some chains

heavy chains

for you

my love

And then I went to the slave market

and I looked for you

but I did not find you there 

my love

Jacques Prévert / Our Father

Jacques Prévert

Our Father

by Jacques Prévert

Jacques Prévert / Pater Noster (Rimbaud)

Jacques Prévert / Padre Nuestro (De otros mundos)

Jacques Prévert / Padre-Nosso (Pessoa)

Our Father who are in heaven
Stay there
And we will stay on the Earth
That is sometimes so pretty
With its mysteries of New York
And then its mysteries of Paris
Which rival those of the Trinity
With its little Canal de l’Ouroq
Its Great Wall of China
Its River of Morlaix
Its Bêtises de Cambrai
With its Pacific Ocean
And its two pools at the Tuilleries
With its good children and its bad apples
With all the wonders of the world
That are there
Simply on the Earth
Offered to everyone
Scattered
Wondering at themselves at how they could be so wonderful
And who dare to show it
Like a beautiful naked girl who dares to show it
With the horrible misfortunes of the world
That are legion
With their legionnaires
With their torturers
With the masters of the world
The masters with their praetors their traitors their raiders
With the seasons
With the years
With the pretty girls and the old codgers
With the straw of misery rotting in the steel of cannons.

Jacques Prévert / The Garden

THE GARDEN

by Jacques Prevert

Thousands and thousands of years

Would not be enough

To tell of 

That small second of eternity

When you held me

When I held you 

One morning 

In winter's light

In Montsouris Park 

In Paris

On earth

This earth 

That is a star

Jacques Prévert / Alicante

ALICANTE

by Jacques Prévert

Jacques Prévert / Alicante (Rimbaud)

An orange on the table
Your dress on the rug
And you in my bed
Sweet gift of the present
Freshness of the night
Warmth of my life

Jacques Prevert / This Love

THIS LOVE

by Jacques Prevert

Jacques Prévert / Cet amour (Rimbaud)
Jacques Prévert / Este amor (De otros mundos)

This love
So violent
So fragile
So tender
So hopeless
This love
As beautiful as the day
And as wretched as the weather
When the weather is wretched
This love
So real
This love
So beautiful
So happy
So joyous
And so ridiculous
Trembling with fear
Like a child in the dark
And so sure of itself
Like a tranquil man in the quiet of the night
This love
Which made others afraid
Which made them gossip
Which drained the colour from their cheeks
This love
Watched for
Because we watched for them
Snared, wounded, trampled, finished, denied, forgotten
Because we snared, wounded, trampled, finished, denied, forgot it
This love
Entire
Still so alive
Shining
This is yours
This is mine
This love
Which is always new
And which never changes
Real like a plant
Quivering like a bird
Warm and as alive as the summer
We can both
Go and come back
We can forget
And fall asleep
And wake up
To suffer old age
Fall asleep again
To dream to death
Awake
To smile and laugh
Young again
Our love endures
Obstinate as a mule
As alive as the desire
As cruel as the memory
As stupid as the regret
As tender as the memory
As cold as marble
As beautiful as the day
As delicate as an infant
It watches us
Smiling
And speaks to us
Without saying a word
And I
I listen to it
Trembling
And I cry
I cry for you
I cry for myself
And I beg you
For yourself
For me
And for all those who love
And who are loved
Yes
I cry to it
For you
For me
And for all the others
I do not know
Stay there
There where you are
There where you were before
Stay there
Don't move
Don't go away
We who are loved
We have forgotten you
Do not forget us
We had only you on this earth
Do not let us grow cold
Further and further away every day
It doesn't matter where
Give us a sign of life
In a nook in the woods
In the forest of memory
Suddenly arise
Take us by the hand
And save us

Jacques Prevert / Song

SONG 

by Jacques Prevert

What day are we?

We are every day

My friend

We're the whole of life

My love

We love and we live

We live and we love

And we don't really know

What life is

And we don't really know

What the day is

And we don't really know

What love is

Jacques Prevert / Four Poems

FOUR POEMS

by Jacques Prevert

The Wonders of Life

In the teeth of a trap
The paw of a white fox
And on the snow, blood
The blood of the white fox
And in the snow, tracks
The tracks of the white fox
Who escaped on three legs
As the sun was setting
A rabbit between his teeth
Still alive

---

It's Like That

A sailor has left the sea
his ship has left the port
the king has left the queen
and a miser has left his gold
                                it's like that
A widow has left her grief
a crazy woman has left the madhouse
and your smile has left my lips
                                it's like that
You will leave me
you will leave me
you will leave me
you will come back to me
you will marry me
you will marry me
The knife marries the wound
the rainbow marries the rain
the smile marries the tears
the caress marries the frown
                                it's like that
And fire marries ice
and death marries life
and life marries love
You will marry me
you will marry me
you will marry me

---

Hyde Park

Like the sea that
tumbles on the sand
here the lovers act
as seems good to them
And nobody asks
if it's for the night or
just a while
nobody talks of the
price of this room
of live green velvet
Hyde and Jeckyll Park
public Eden where one hears
night and day
whispered
"the Devil save the Dream!"

Jacques Prevert / Family Life

FAMILY LIFE 

by Jacques Prevert

FAMILY LIFE (1)

The mother knits
The son goes to the war
She finds this quite natural, the mother
And the father?
What does the father do?
He has his business
His wife knits
His son goes to the war
He has his business
He finds this quite natural, the father
And the son
And the son
What does the son find?
He finds absolutely nothing, the son
The son: his mother does her knitting,
His father has his business
And he has the war
When the war is over
He'll go into business with his father
The war continues
The mother continues knitting
The father continues with his business
The son is killed
He doesn't continue
The father and mother visit the graveyard
They find this natural
The father and the mother
Life goes on
A life of knitting, war, business
Business, war, knitting, war
Business, business, business
Life with the graveyard

FAMILY LIFE (2)

The Mum knits
The kid goes off to the war
It seems kind of normal, to the Mum
And the Dad?
What's the Dad up to?
He's got his job
His old lady's got her knitting
His kid's gone off to the war
He's got his job
It seems kind of normal, to the Dad
And the kid?
What about the kid?
What does he make of it all?
Sweet fuck all
His old woman's got her knitting
His old man's got his job
And he's got the fucking war
And when the war's over
He'll get a job
Like his old man
Anyhow the war goes on
His old woman goes on with her knitting
His old man goes on with his job
He gets his fucking brains blown out
He doesn't go on
He goes under
The Mum and Dad
Go visit the grave
Which seems kind of normal
To the Mum and Dad
And life goes on
A life of knitting, the war, the job
War, knitting, war
Job, job, job
Life in a bloody graveyard

Jacques Prevert / Breakfast

Jacques Prevert
París, 1955
Photo by Robert Doisneau

Breakfast

by Jacques Prevert

Jacques Prévert / Dejeuner du matin (Rimbaud)
Jacques Prévert / Dejeuneur du matin / Video (Rimbaud)
Jacques Prévert / Desayuno (De otros mundos)
Jacques Prévert / Café da manhã (Pessoa)

He poured the coffee
Into the cup
He poured the milk
Into the cup of coffee
He added the sugar
To the coffee and milk
He stirred it
With a teaspoon
He drank the coffee
And put back the cup
Without speaking to me
He lit a cigarette
He blew some rings
With the smoke
He flicked the ashes
Into the ashtray
Without speaking to me
Without looking at me
He got up
He put his hat
On his head
He put on
His raincoat
Because it was raining
He went out
Into the rain
Without a word
Without looking at me
And I
I took my head
In my hands
And I wept

Jacques Prevert / Autumn Leaves

AUTUMN LEAVES

By Jacques Prevert

Translated by Patrick Auzat-Magne

Oh! I would like as much as you remember
The happy days where we were friends.
In this time the life was more beautiful,
And the sun more burning than today.
The dead leaves collected with the shovel.
You see, I did not forget...
The dead leaves collected with the shovel,
The memories and the regrets also
And the wind of North carries them
In the cold night of the lapse of memory.
You see, I did not forget
The song that you sang me.

This is a song which resembles to us.
You, you loved me and I loved you
And we lived both together,
You who loved me, me who loved you.
But the life separate those which love themselves,
All softly, without making noise
And the sea erases on the sand
The Steps of  divided lovers.

The dead leaves collected with the shovel,
The memories and the regrets also
But my quiet and faithful love
Smiles always and thanks the life
I loved you so much, you was so pretty.
Why do you want that I forget you ?
In this time, the life was more beautiful
And the sun more burning than today.
You were my softer friend
But I don't have only to make regrets
And the song than you sang,
Always, always I will hear it !

Yves Montand

Les Feuilles Mortes

Jacques Prevert

Les Feuilles Mortes

Oh ! je voudrais tant que tu te souviennes
Des jours heureux où nous étions amis.
En ce temps-là la vie était plus belle,
Et le soleil plus brûlant qu'aujourd'hui.
Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle.
Tu vois, je n'ai pas oublié...
Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle,
Les souvenirs et les regrets aussi
Et le vent du nord les emporte
Dans la nuit froide de l'oubli.
Tu vois, je n'ai pas oublié
La chanson que tu me chantais.

C'est une chanson qui nous ressemble.
Toi, tu m'aimais et je t'aimais
Et nous vivions tous deux ensemble,
Toi qui m'aimais, moi qui t'aimais.
Mais la vie sépare ceux qui s'aiment,
Tout doucement, sans faire de bruit
Et la mer efface sur le sable
Les pas des amants désunis.

Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle,
Les souvenirs et les regrets aussi
Mais mon amour silencieux et fidèle
Sourit toujours et remercie la vie.
Je t'aimais tant, tu étais si jolie.
Comment veux-tu que je t'oublie ?
En ce temps-là, la vie était plus belle
Et le soleil plus brûlant qu'aujourd'hui.
Tu étais ma plus douce amie
Mais je n'ai que faire des regrets
Et la chanson que tu chantais,
Toujours, toujours je l'entendrai!

 

 

This song "Les Feuilles Mortes" was wrote by the french surrealist poet Jacques Prévert. In 1945, Prévert wrote the film script "Les Portes de la Nuit" (a film of Marcel Carné - 1946), from a ballet "Le Rendez-Vous" created by Roland Petit in 1945. The two first verses of a song give the title: "Les enfants qui s'aiment s'embrassent debout/contre les Portes de la Nuit".

Jean Gabin and Marlene Dietrich had acepted to play the two characters, but at last, they changed for another movie: "Martin Roumagnac".

A young french singer presented by Edith Piaf:  Yves Montand plays this very pessimist film and sung "Les Feuilles Mortes".

The music was created, before, by Joseph Kosma for the ballet "Le Rendez-Vous" in 1945, and Prévert wrote, after, the words for the movie.

The poem was published, after the death of Jacques Prévert, in the book "Soleil de Nuit" in 1980.

           Johnny Mercer had adapted the french words in the song "Autumn Leaves".