Les Miserables 1991 Paris Revival La Mort de Fantine lyrics

FANTINE:
Il fait si froid dehors;
Les petites filles bien sages
Attendent déjà au lit
Qu'arrive le marchand de sable.
Ma Cosette, la nuit descend son voile,
Dans le ciel naît la première étoile.
Ferme tes yeux, pardonne-moi ma fille.
J'avais rêvé de faire ton nid
Au sein d'une vraie famille.
La misère n'est mère de personne,
Elle enfante l'horreur au coeur des hommes,
Les ténèbres qui recouvrent la terre.
Moi, je vais rester là à te bercer la nuit entière
VALJEAN:
Oh! Fantine,
Je n'ai que peu de temps;
Mais Fantine, je te fais ce serment.
FANTINE:
Oh! Monsieur,
Regardez-la jouer!
VALJEAN:
Dors en paix,
Dors en paix mon enfant.
FANTINE:
Ma Cosette...
VALJEAN:
Vous serez ma famille.
FANTINE:
Elle aura...
VALJEAN:
Tout, comme ma propre fille.
FANTINE:
Bon monsieur,
Bon ange qui tombez du ciel.
VALJEAN:
Vous la verrez bientôt
J'irai la rechercher moi-même
FANTINE:
La lumière brille
Du fond de votre âme;
VALJEAN:
Vous ne travaillerez plus.
FANTINE:
Elle éclaire le coeur blessé d'une femme
VALJEAN:
Vertueuse devant Dieu!
FANTINE:
Bon monsieur,
Que je vais être heureuse!
Je dirai à Cosette
Qu'un saint est descendu sur terre

[@mikeor-]

Translation: Fantine: It is so cold outside. The little girls are wise, They wait beside my bed While the hourglass empties. My Cosette, the night is now descending. In the sky, the first star appears. Close your eyes, and forgive me, o my daughter. I always dreamed that I would Fulfill your need for a family. The misery is not the dying mother, But her child, being the horror of men's hearts. As the shadows descend on Earth, I will spend eternal night upon the bier. Valjean: Oh, Fantine! I have so little time left, So allow me to make to you this promise. Fantine: Oh, Monsieur! Look at her playing! Valjean: Rest in peace, Sleep in peace, child. Fantine: My Cosette... Valjean: You will be in my family. Fantine: She is coming Valjean: I will raise her as my daughter Fantine: Good sir, A good angel descends Upon you from the heavens Valjean: You shall see her soon. I will find her myself. Fantine: The light is shining In the depths of your soul. Valjean: You will no longer struggle. Fantine: She lights up the broken heart of a woman. Valjean: Virtuous before God! Fantine: Good sir, I will be very happy To tell Cosette that a saint has descended upon Earth! (Dies)

[@flatfingertuning727]

"The misery is not the dying mother,"? I would have thought that line would make sense translated rather straightforwardly as "Misery is mother of no one". Either way, that line, taken from an earlier scene in the original French show seems out of place in a song Fantine is singing for (an imagined) Cosette. I also wonder if the last quatrain wouldn't have been better with something closer to the English, e.g. "Veuillez rester / pendant que je m'endors. / Dis à Cosette que je l'aime et / Je la verrai à mon réveil." (on the third line, "Cosette" should line up with the English lyric "and tell"). Would that seem like a reasonable French lyric?

[@mamzelleolli7496]

Thank you! Thank you so much!

[@josephcapaccio6278]

Too beautiful and sensitive for public consumption

[@mamzelleolli7496]

Ah, the feels :/ everything sounds so much better in French.

[@flatfingertuning727]

I prefer the last line of the English, though: "And tell Cosette I love her and I'll see her when I wake". The French line "I will tell Cosette That a saint came down to earth" doesn't work for me. By the time Fantine would be able to tell Cosette anything, there would be no need. Better than the Original French Concept album where Fantine's last line is "And the titmouse thus into a wild dog itself transforms", but I would think the last quatrain might have been better if it had been based on the English, adjusted for meter: "Veuillez rester / pendant que je m'endors. / Dis à Cosette que je l'aime. / Je la verrai à mon réveil." [Please stay while I fall asleep. Tell Cosette I love her. I will see her at my awakening.]

[@jvillar12]

Qui est la chanteuse en cette version ? Who sings Fantine's part in this version?

[@abdramaqueen15]

Louise Pitre I believe

[@josephcapaccio6278]

such a frosty and super super sensitive voice

[@mikeor-]

@@abdramaqueen15 She is the best Fantine in the French Version, but Anne Hathaway is the best when it comes to the English one.

[@josephcapaccio6278]

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