Talk:Auprès de ma blonde

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Untitled[edit]

My French is not very good but doesn't the word Blonde, in this context, mean girlfriend? NorthernThunder 21:43, 1 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This is the point that's interesting me. We're forced to imagine a male singer - probably a French soldier held captive in Holland - who is himself imagining the thoughts of his girlfriend - whose father has the gardens, etc. The prettiness of the ideas, which are happy and girlish, are then part of his nostalgic fantasy. Jsatterthwaite 07:36, 2 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, that's an interesting interpretation. I've been trying to work out the viewpoint of the song, myself, with mixed results at best. I had come up with the theory that the POV of the song kept flipping back and forth between the young woman, pining for her captive husband, and her beau, pining for his lost love. It's a bit jarring, but I can imagine it filmed with cuts between the two characters, like "Goodnight, My Someone" from The Music Man. But I'm not sure, and your interpretation is intriguing. --DavidConrad 18:19, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Blonde" does mean "girlfriend" in Canada, but not (yet) in France, so if the song dates back to Louis XIV, the word cannot have this acception in the song.

212.198.138.73 (talk) 05:59, 31 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

While my French isn't that good, I believe that "ma blonde" would translate better as "my blond", meaning a blond woman. It does indicate that it refers to a female however, if it referred to a male, it would be "mon blond" instead. Un blond is male, une blonde (with the finale e) is female. Cardweaver (talk) 17:59, 5 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Cardweaver is correct, 212.198.138.73 is not. Blonde can indeed refer to girlfriend in France, as it would in this example. As stated, blond is masculine, blonde is feminine; it is the same in English. The pronoun "ma" also confirms the object is feminine. Side-note: in my 20s, I was chatting in French to a French girl (not a blonde) about French songs we had learned at primary school aged say 5-6, in England. Examples included Frère Jacques, Au Clair de la Lune, Sur le Pont d'Avignon and Auprès de ma Blonde, long before we studied French language, if the teachers ever did! She looked at me quite astonished and said "ça n'est pas un chanson d'enfants" - that is not a Nursery Rhyme. Well, apparently it is in England. Rough translation of relevant lyrics: It is good, good, good to sleep next to my blonde (girlfriend). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.138.195.249 (talk) 15:32, 4 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Translation[edit]

The melody and article is very interesting, but a translation might be a great addition to this article. I don't speak any French whatsoever and manually typing the songtext into google translator or something similar is awful, would anybody like to add a translation? I think this would be a great addition. 2.122.217.167 (talk) 23:22, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

In my Father's garden, the lilacs are in flower In my Father's garden, the laurels are in flower All the birds of the world come and make their nests. Chorus: It is good, good, good to sleep next to my blonde (girlfriend).

86.138.195.249 (talk) 15:38, 4 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Melody reuse[edit]

Elvis Presley reused this melody for a song in one of his movies:

I love only one girl, the one I've got my arms around, I love only one girl, one in every town.

Also about this same time, there was a popular version (in French) that was played frequently on radio station in the U.S. agb 173.233.167.50 (talk) 17:16, 22 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]