Du temps que j’etais jeune (MS2011-3223-059)

Du temps que j’etais jeune (MS2011-3223-059)

Looseleaf French language song text from VFC2006-0002 Beaudoin Family Collection. MS2011-3223-059 Alice Danis Lacourse Songbook.

“Du temps que j’etais jeune” (“In my Youth”) is a transcription of a traditional French song which has been documented in France since the mid-1800s, but its poetic structure and references suggest that it is considerably older. Only three versions of this song from Canada appear in Conrad Laforte’s Le Catalogue de la chanson folklorique française: one from Ontario and two from Quebec. Cataloguer Lisa Ornstein is aware of a version very similar to the one in this song manuscript which is in circulation in the present-day repertory of traditional singers from the Lanaudière region of Québec.

When I was young, I had lovers; now that I’m old, I have only two; I much prefer Antoine, he is less [unclear]; he takes me to Mass in a little ox-drawn cart; he takes me there and back, and to Vespers as often as I like.

VFC2006-0002 Beaudoin Family Collection. MS2011-3223 Alice Danis Lacourse Songbook. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.

Du temps que j’etais jeune

Du temps que j’étais jeune

L'amoureux que j'aime le mieux I, N-13

Quand la feuille était verte 04803

In My Youth

Du temps que j’etais jeune

Du temps que j’etais jeune
Que faluron dondaine
J’avais des amoureux faluron lurette
J’avais des amoureux faluron lure

2
A present que je suis vieille
J’ai faluron dondaine
J’en ai seulement que deux
Faluronlurette
J’en ai seulement que deux faluron lure

3
A h’aime bien mieux Antoine
Gai faluron Dondaine
Il est moin falureux faluronette
Il est moin faleureux faluron lure
Il me mene a la messe gai faluron dondaine
Aux en petite charrette a Boeuf faluron lurette
Faluron lure
Il me mene m’y ramene que faluron dondaine
Aux vepres tant que je veut faluron lurette
Aux vepres tant que je veut faluron lure