Don't autumn leaves tend to turn the color of your hair...

Translation of Les Moulins de mon Cœur-THE WINDMILLS OF YOUR MIND by T. Wignesan

(For the orignal text in French by Eddy MARNAY : see here below. The English version by Marilyn and Alan BERGMAN differs considerably from the French original, but arguably it could lay claim to originality of versification in its own right. The musical composition is by Michel LEGRAND, though his duet renditions in French and solo in English are not by far the most delectable. The always exquisite Barbra Streisand performance, which one intimately associates the words with, uses the the English version only. For these reasons, I felt it useful to translate the French original into English. I have not tried to keep to the rhyme scheme - neither does the Bergman version - of alternate rhymes mainly : ABCB/DCDC/EFE/FE( ?)F// GHGH/IHIH/EFE/FEF// JKJK/CLCL/FMFM/DFDF//, with a discernible refrain repeated in the three stanzas of 14, 14 and 16 lines respectively, followed by the refrain (Patricia Kass, however, ends with the refrain in English), making the first two somewhat Petrarchan sonnets if they were iambic in tempo : that is, the octave formed of two quatrains, followed by a sextet in EFE/FEF, but then this assertion is quite un-called for here.

One might note en passim the spiraling cascading images of the external world collapsing into the persona's vacant and desolate heart, the pathos brought about dexterously by the " absence " (or disappearance of a loved one) : " The bird fell from its nest "// " Like the songs which die/ As quickly as one forgets them "//, the quintessential sentiment held together and underlined by the image of how autumn leaves turn to the colour of the absent one's hair.

The entire " poem " ( I prefer to call it so) constructs itself on a cascading sequence of similies twirling in a maelstrom of natural objects and eddying into the persona's lonely heart : " stream ", " rain ", " snow ", " ocean " (water), " wind " (air), " sand ", " moon ", " stars " (made up of the same constituent particles as earth), " leaves ", " flowers ", " sea-gulls ", (living " creatures "), " heart " (self or soul), " summer ", " autumn ", "hours " (time : yes, both time and space in cosmological terms are " objects " like us in the uni-or-multi-verse), etc.
Enjoy the music. T. Wignesan )

Like a stone one throws
In the running waters of a stream
And which provokes in its trail
Thousands of swirling circles
Like a carousel round the moon
With the manes of horses as stars
Like a ring of particles around Saturn
A carnival baloon
Like the concentric movement of circles
Which define the course of the hours
The voyage around the earth
(Like) the sunflower worshipping the sun
You succeed in turning with your breath
All the windmills of my heart

Like the tangle of wool
Inextricably confounding a child's hands
(Like) the words of a corny tune
Caught within the harpstrings of the wind
Like a swirling avalanche of snow
Like the startling flight of sea-gulls
Over the forests of Norway
Over oceans of woolly lambs
Like the concentric movement of circles
Which define the course of the hours
The voyage around the earth
(Like) the sunflower worshipping the sun
You succeed in turning with your breath
All the windmills of my heart

Remember that day close by the summit
Only God knows what you said
But the summer by then nearly at an end
The bird fell from its nest
And, like it or not, on the beach
Our footprints already leave no trace
And I'm left alone at table
Which resounds unde my fingers
Like a tambourine in a lament
Under raindrops which pound
Like the songs which simply extinguish
As quickly as they are forgotten
And the leaves of trees in autumn
Find themselves under skies less blue
And your absence taints them
The aging colour of your hair

© Translation and comments : T. Wignesan - Paris, May 12, 2019



Les Moulins De Mon Coeur (The Windmills Of Your Mind)
This song is by Patricia Kaas and appears on the album Piano Bar (2002).


Comme une pierre que l'on jette
Dans l'eau vive d'un ruisseau
Et qui laisse derrière elle
Des milliers de ronds dans l'eau
Comme un manège de lune
Avec ses chevaux d'étoiles
Comme un anneau de Saturne
Un ballon de carnaval
Comme le chemin de ronde
Que font sans cesse les heures
Le voyage autour du monde
D'un tournesol dans sa fleur
Tu fais tourner de ton nom
Tous les moulins de mon coeur

Comme un écheveau de laine
Entre les mains d'un enfant
Ou les mots d'une rengaine
Pris dans les harpes du vent
Comme un tourbillon de neige
Comme un vol de goélands
Sur des forêts de Norvège
Sur des moutons d'océan
Comme le chemin de ronde
Que font sans cesse les heures
Le voyage autour du monde
D'un tournesol dans sa fleur
Tu fais tourner de ton nom
Tous les moulins de mon coeur

Ce jour là près de la source
Dieu sait ce que tu m'as dit
Mais l'été finit sa course
L'oiseau tomba de son nid
Et voilà que sur le sable
Nos pas s'effacent déjà
Et je suis seul à la table
Qui résonne sous mes doigts
Comme un tambourin qui pleure
Sous les gouttes de la pluie
Comme les chansons qui meurent
Aussitôt qu'on les oublie
Et les feuilles de l'automne
Rencontrent des ciels moins bleus
Et ton absence leur donne
La couleur de tes cheveux

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever spinning reel
As the images on wind
Like the circles that you find
In the remainds of your mind

Credits
Music by: Michel Legrand

Lyrics by: Eddy Marnay (original French text), Marilyn Bergman & Alan Bergman (English text)
Lyrics licensed by LyricFind