Derrière chez nous il y a un champ de pois [first line] (AU1998-1070-002)

Derrière chez nous il y a un champ de pois [first line] (AU1998-1070-002)

Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-002) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.

“Derrière chez nous y a t-un champ d’pois” (“Behind our house there’s a field of peas”) is a song which has traveled long and widely in French-speaking Europe and North American. It’s earliest known printing dates to 1602, though it is very likely that the song was in circulation prior to that date. Ballad scholar Conrad Laforte documented more than forty French versions and almost 140 Canadian versions of this song, in addition to versions from Belgium, Switzerland, and Maine.

Some early French versions of this song tell of a maiden who drinks too deeply from a claire fontaine (clear fountain) and falls ill; in French medieval poetry, the claire fontaine symbolizes the trysting place of lovers. In other versions, the maiden is collecting nuts (or, as in the case of Alberta Gagné’s version, peas) and falls ill after eating some her harvest; like the clear fountain, the harvesting of fruits and nuts symbolizes the act of making love in medieval French poetry.

In all versions of the song, the maiden lays ill in bed, sometimes for three months, sometimes for nine months. During that time, her relatives visit, but not her lover. Eventually the lover shows up and either pledges fidelity, or toasts the maiden with a bottle of wine, or engages in some hanky-panky. In Alberta Gagné’s version, the lover arrives with a white glove in hand, symbolizing his commitment of fidelity.

After singing the song, Mrs. Gagné remarked that she had learned the song from her sister Blanche, who heard it on the radio. Mrs. Gagné already knew the lyrics, but with a different refrain.

VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.

Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center

Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070

fra

vfc1998-0007_tc1998-1070-002

vfc1998-0007_tc1998-1070-002b

Derriere chez nous v a un champ de pois

La malade au lit trois mois I, H-07

Le champ de pois, 02302

Derriere chez nous v a un champ de pois

Derrière chez nous, y'a t-un champ d’pois, [x2]
J'en cueilli deux, j'en mangeai trois mois,

[Refrain] :
En passant par les épinettes,
Marie-Calumette a perdu sa roulette.
En passant tout le long du bois,
Y a quelqu'un qui a trouvé ça.

J'en cueilli deux, j'en mangeai trois, [x2]
J'ai été malade au lit trois mois,
Refrain

J'ai été malade au lit trois mois, [x2]
Tous mes parents venaient m'y voir,
Refrain

Tous mes parents venaient m'y voir, [x2],
Mais cel’ que j'aime, ne venait pas.
Refrain

Mais cel’ que j'aime, ne venait pas, [x2]
Je l'aperçois venir là-bas,
Refrain

Je l'aperçois venir là-bas, [x2]
Dans sa main droite tient un gant blanc.
Refrain

Dans sa main droite tient un gant blanc, [x2]
Tous nos amours se sont dedans.
Refrain

MP:     Bravo. Une belle voix

 

NG:     Ah oui...

 

MP:     Ah oui...

 

NG:     ...See what I said, she’s got a good rythm.

 

MP:     Ya...belle voix...

 

AG:     That song I learn it with my sister Blanche, she had taken it from... it's a newer song, she had heard it on the radio, she lived in Holyoke, Mass, at the time.  She had learned it... some French songs, some French people were singing French songs on the radio and she learned that one so I learned it from her. lt's a song . the refrain is different then what we used to sing that I knew for a long time. Le refrain est different. c'est un refrain nouveau.

 

MP:     You find that often. there's a lot of versions to each song, sont pas tout' pareilles.

 

NG:     Non

 

AG:     Non sont pas tout' pareilles.

 

NG:     Some of the words are changed, the songs. The tune is the same but the words have changed...

Refrain:
While passing through the spruce trees,
Marie-Calumette lost her wheel,
While passing through the woods,
Someone found it.

laisse, 8-syllable lines (“oi’’ or ‘’a’’ end-rhyme); 7 verses

sound cassette (analog)