can anyone translate this french song, "ballade a sylvie" by leny escudero into english??

Question

i've used some of the translator on the net, still it makes no sense to me. What is this song about?especially at the end, why did she die??

J'ai perdu mon âme
En perdant Sylvie
J'ai perdu mon âme
En perdant ma mie.

Ah, qu'elle me revienne
J'oublierai le temps
Le temps de mes peines
Et tous mes tourments

Moi, je te pardonne
Et si tu voulais
Un jour de l'automne
Tu me reviendrais

J'ai perdu mon âme
Quand j'ai perdu son amour
Et moi pauvre diable
Je l'aime toujours.

{Refrain}

Par un soir d'automne
Elle est arrivée
Elle m'a dit : "Pardonne ! "
Et j'ai pardonné

Mais malgré moi-même
Tout au fond de moi
Etait né la haine
Qui dictait sa loi.

Et devant ma porte
Son regard caressant le mien
Là mon âme est morte
Dans le creux de ma main

THANK YOU

Answer 1

First you have to decide whether it is his soul/heart or Sylvie who is coming back. "Elle" could denote both, and surely is intended to denote both in the song since his love and his soul are so intertwined with each other. This ambiguity works very well in French, but in English you must decide ("she" or "it"). But if you can imagine his soul/heart as "she" in the translation below, you can preserve the double meaning. I have used "soul" to translate âme. That is the primary meaning. But "heart" is also perfectly OK and might be better in this context, so you can substitute it with "heart" if you want to. - Another thing: "mie" DOES literally mean "crumb", but is also used for "sweetheart".

I lost my soul [or: heart]
when losing Sylvie
I lost my soul
when losing my sweetheart

Oh, let her come back
I will forget
I will forget my time of pain
and all my torments

I forgive you
And if you just wanted
One autumn evening
You would come back

I lost my soul
When I lost her love
And I, poor devil,
I still love her

One autumn evening
She arrived
She said to me: "Forgive me!"
And I forgave

But in spite of myself
Deep down inside me
The hatred was born
that dictated its law

And there on my doorstep
Her gaze caressing mine
My soul died
In the hollow of my hand

Answer 2

Refrain:}
I lost my heart
By losing Sylvie
I lost my heart
By losing my crumb.

Ah, that it returns to me
I will forget time
The time of my sorrows
And all my torments

Me, I forgive you
And if you wanted
One day of the autumn
You would return to me

I lost my heart
When I lost his love
And me poor devil
I always like it.

{Refrain}

By one evening of autumn
It arrived
It said to me: “Forgives! ”
And I forgave

But in spite of myself
All at the bottom of me
Had been born hatred
Who dictated his law.

And in front of my door
Its glance cherishing mine
There my heart died
In the hollow of my hand.

Answer 3

I lost my heart
By losing Sylvie
I lost my heart
By losing my crumb.

Ah, that it returns to me
I will forget time
The time of my sorrows
And all my torments

Me, I forgive you
And if you wanted
One day of the autumn
You would return to me

I lost my heart
When I lost his love
And me poor devil
I always like it.

{Refrain}

By one evening of autumn
It arrived
It said to me: "Forgives! "
And I forgave

But in spite of myself
All at the bottom of me
Had been born hatred
Who dictated his law.

And in front of my door
Its glance cherishing mine
There my heart died
In the hollow of my hand.

Answer 4

You already have the translation. AskAsk did it perfectly. As for the meaning of the end, I understand it differently:

He says he lost his soul when losing Sylvie. Since Sylvie was his soul, when he says at the end that his soul died, I think he is really saying that Sylvie died. And to me, saying that she died in his hand is a poetical way of saying that he himself killed her (in front of the door, while she was gazing into his eyes). He killed Sylvie because he was unable to forgive her deep inside. Deep inside, he hated her for ever leaving him, and this hatred, which, as he says, forced its own law upon him, made him kill her.

Answer 5

it doesn't really make sense in french either. he misses her and wants her to come back but when she arrives and asks forgiveness, he realizes that there is hatred in him. so when he finds his soul, it dies. ummmmm.... yah.

maybe he didn't realize what he felt about her because she was not there to reflect his feelings. then when she returned, he found out what he really felt, but unfortunately what he really felt was hatred. so his soul died.

that's the best i can do. but the confusion isn't all in the translation problem.

Answer 6

hi! am french and 'd like to tell u, dat poetry is with heart and not with reason (racine: "passion has its reasons that reason doesn't get"...) evenif he forgives her, his heart is too weak, and this forgiveness took all his strength. and this poem-song shows, as well, that hatred is sometimes able to destruct you, struggling in your soul with love. it emphasizes the complexity of human feelings... bisous from france! ;)