Sting lyrics: "La belle dame sans regrets"

From Sting's album Mercury Falling, we have "La belle dame sans regrets." Lyrics:

Dansons tu dis
Et moi, je suis
Mes pas sont gauches
Mes pieds tu fauches
Je crains les sots
Je cherche en vain les mots
Pour m'expliquer ta vie, alors
Tu mens, ma soeur
Tu brises mon coeur
Je pense, tu sais
Erreurs, jamais
J'écoute, tu parles
Je ne comprends pas bien
La belle dame sans regrets

Je pleure, tu ris
Je chante, tu cries
Tu sèmes les graines
D'un mauvais chêne
Mon blé s'envole
Tu en a ras-le-bol
J'attends, toujours
Mes cris sont sourds
Tu mens, ma soeur
Tu brises mon coeur
Je pense, tu sais
Erreurs, jamais
J'ecoute, tu parles
Je ne comprends pas bien
La belle dame sans regrets...

The French strikes me as a bit awkward in this song, but it's not a bad song for beginning students to try and figure out. By my estimation, a French 2 student should be able to translate most, if not all, of the lyrics.

Be careful, though, O Student, because some of the words might not mean what you think they mean! For example: the phrase "je suis" doesn't mean "I am." The suis comes from a different verb! Can you guess which one? Also: the masculine plural adjective sourds doesn't mean "deaf." Can you guess what Sting means by "mes cris sont sourds"?

Have fun decoding! And if you want to hear the song itself, YouTube has several vids. Here's one. It's interesting to hear Sting's accent: he tends to roll his "r" sounds, as if he were singing in Spanish. This might simply be because he can't speak French all that well, or it might be that the French he's learned is more southern in character. When I lived in Nice, I heard plenty of trilled and rolled "r"s.


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