Thursday 30 April 2009

Manhattan kaboul

I want to move on from a brief introduction about Renaud and one of his most famous songs, Manhattan kaboul, to talk in more detail about this song. It is a duet with a Belgian singer called Axelle Red. Here are the first two verses. The first is sung by Renaud and the second by Axelle Red.

Petit Portoricain
Bien intégré, quasiment New Yorkais,
Dans mon building tout de verre et d'acier,
Je prend mon job, un rail de coke, un café

Petite fille Afghane,
De l'autre côté de la Terre,
Jamais entendu parler de Manhattan,
mon quotidien c'est la misère et la guerre

There is no s on the end of je prend. Perhaps this indicates that it is sung a little quicker than normal speech. Otherwise I hope this song is not too difficult for you to translate as it has an important message or two. It is written post 9/11. It looks at the reasons behind 9/11 which is almost taboo in England. In the same verse we are challenged to think about our standards. It is worth listening to and translating the whole song.

A bientôt

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