Barbara (singer)

Monique Andrée Serf (June 9, 1930 – November 24, 1997), known as Barbara (Barbara Brodi in her debut), was a popular French female singer.

Barbara

Song lyrics

• Un beau jour, ou peut-etre une nuit,
  Près d'un lac, je m'étais endormie,
  Quand soudain, semblant crever le ciel,
  Et venant de nulle part,
  Surgit un aigle noir.
  • Translation: One fine day, or perhaps one night,
    Near a lake,when I'm sleeping,
    Suddenly, the skies cave in,
    And out of nowhere,
    Surges an eagle, black.
  • L'Aigle noir.

So try not to be, too surprised,
And forgive me, as you try,
But children, they're all the same,
In Paris, or in Gottingen. ~ Göttingen

• Et tant pis pour ceux qui s'etonnent
  Et que les autres me pardonnent
  Mais les enfants ce sont les memes
  A Paris ou a Gottingen.
  • Translation: So try not to be, too surprised,
    And forgive me, as you try,
    But children, they're all the same,
    In Paris, or in Gottingen.
  • Göttingen.

• Mais il mourut à la nuit même
  Sans un adieu, sans un je t'aime
  Mon père, mon père
  le ciel de Nantes
  Rend mon coeur chagrin.
  • Translation: He died before the night was through
    Without farewell, or I love you
    My father, my father.
    The sky in Nantes
    Rips my heart with grief.
  • Nantes.

Quotes about Barbara

• Standing outside the house where she was born, in June 1930, I think some things in Paris never change...things like the smell of fresh-baked baguettes at daybreak, the Napoleonic arcades [-] the morning coffee that you drink standing up for double impact and the sound of a chanson that's not just popular, its intensely personal, to everyone who hears it, it's a song that evokes a place, an encounter, a moment in your life. It might be sung by Edith Piaf, or Jacques Brel, or Juliette Greco - but the one for me who delves deepest into the collective unconscious, is almost unknown outside France, and her song is the story of millions of private lives, of the spirit of Paris, of the narrative of our times, of my lifetime, she's known as Barbara, though that's not her real name, she called herself, the Black Eagle, and she always wore black.
  • Norman Lebrecht, speaking on Radio Three, The Inner Voice of France, December 2011.