French lyrics are built on sounds English does not have: silent letters that come back to life when sung, vowels that glide into each other, and rhymes that only work in French. French and English are already set in the translator above, so paste the lyrics for a faithful translation, a singable English version and notes on the idioms.
In speech, the e at the end of words like belle or encore is usually silent. In songs it is often sung as its own syllable, especially before a consonant, so a line can have more sung syllables than it looks. An English singable line has to fill all of them.
Tu is close, vous is polite or plural. A song that moves from vous to tu is telling you a relationship has become closer. English you cannot show this, so the notes point it out when it is part of the story.
Avoir le cafard means to feel down, not to have the cockroach. Poser un lapin is to stand someone up, not to put down a rabbit. Word for word they are nonsense, so the faithful version translates the meaning and the notes give the literal picture when it is worth knowing.
French rap and pop use verlan, slang made by flipping a word's syllables: louf for fou, chelou for louche. The translator recognizes common verlan and street slang and explains what it read.
French adjectives agree with gender, so heureuse tells you the singer is a woman. English loses this, and the notes mention it when it matters to the song.
Two original lines, written for this page. Spoken, the first line has 8 syllables. Sung, it has 10, because the final e of chaise and contre each gets a note. The second line also sings as 10.
J'ai rangé ta chaise contre le mur,
mais la maison garde encore ta voix.
I pushed your chair against the wall,
but the house still keeps your voice.
I put your chair back up against the wall
but every room still holds on to your voice
The faithful lines are only 8 syllables each, too short for a 10 note melody, so the singable version adds back up and every room. Rangé literally means put away or tidied, a hint that the chair will not be needed again; pushed against the wall keeps only part of that, which is the kind of nuance worth reading the original for.
Yes. It reads regional French vocabulary and slang, and the notes say when a word has a local meaning that differs from French in France.
Common verlan and street slang are recognized and translated by what they mean, and the notes explain the words it had to interpret. Very new slang can be missed, so check those notes with someone who knows the scene.
Because French sings more syllables than it speaks. The e at the end of many words gets its own note, so a line that looks short can fill ten or twelve notes. The singable version is built to fill them; the faithful version is built to be read.
Yes. It gives one English line for each French line, in the same order, so it lines up with the original timing. For subtitles that go out publicly, have a fluent speaker read them once.
Lines that rhyme in French still rhyme in English, though usually on a different sound, and near rhymes are allowed. To keep a rhyme, the singable version may change an image while keeping the feeling of the line.