Jacques Brel, Bobino Theater, 1961
Les Désespérés (The Desperate Ones)
Les Désespérés (The Desperate Ones) recounts an incident where the narrator observes the final trajectory for a pair of old lovers, having been worn down like birds that lost their wings or trees without branches. They walk silently but purposefully, hand-in-hand at night in the drizzle. The river embraces them as their final “hostess” where they “melt silently” away, leaving only light mist on the bridge. The couple is emblematic of folks who fall into an emotional state of despair and lose all hope.
Brel recorded this song in November 1965 with his collaborators Gérard Jouannest on piano and the orchestra of François Rauber. He never recorded the song in a live performance, so there is only the studio recording. It was, perhaps, a swan song reflecting his state of mind shortly before he announced his own retirement from live performance a few months later in 1966 at his favorite venue, the Paris Olympia music hall. That last performance occurred in May 1967 in Roubaix, a small town just north of Lille and symbolically adjacent to his home country of Belgium.
The lyrics are accompanied by Jouannest’s simple, slow and deliberate piano melody, each note fondling the words it accompanies. The overall pace and funereal tone match the determined intentionality of the subjects. The piece drew inspiration from the second movement (adagio assai) of Maurice Ravel’s 1931 piano Concerto in G, Ravel's penultimate composition. Brel hugely admired Ravel: “J’aime la musique. Tout d’abord […] je vous avouerais que j’aime passionnément Ravel!”
It is noteworthy that Brel had a visual perspective on song. He commented: “Pour moi, la chanson est un dessin. Les lignes, ce sont les mots. Les couleurs sont les harmonies. Et les volumes represent, pour moi, la ligne musicale” (“For me, the “chanson” is a drawing. The lines are the words. The colors are the harmonies. And the dynamics represent, for me, the musical line”).
The lyrics are meticulously structured in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each with rhyme schemes of AABB in stanzas 1, 2, and 4. The narrative perspective shifts from the third person describing the subjects to the first person in the third stanza, thereby affirming the narrator’s affinity with them (“je sais leur chemin pour l’avoir cheminé”). The rhyme scheme in that stanza also shifts distinctively to BBBB, while stanza 5 is ABAB. The song’s title “Les désespérés” appears as a repeated refrain in the second half of the fourth line in each stanza except the last one, where, after the subjects’ disappearance, it dons a past tense “Ceux qui ont espéré” (“Those who had hoped”). This clever wordplay fuses the concepts of “hope” (“espérer”) and “despair” (“désespérer”) and marks the subjects’ final transition. They had hoped, but hope ran out and yielded finally to despair. Still, questions linger. Who are they? How did this come to pass?
Alphonse LeGros, 1837/1911,
"Le désespéré"
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Se tiennent par la main et marchent en silence Dans ces villes éteintes que le crachin balance Ne sonnent que leurs pas, pas à pas fredonnés Ils marchent en silence, les désespérés Ils ont brûlé leurs ailes, ils ont perdu leurs branches Tellement naufragés que la mort paraît blanche Ils reviennent d’amour, ils se sont réveillés Ils marchent en silence, les désespérés Et je sais leur chemin pour l’avoir cheminé Déjà plus de cent fois, cent fois plus qu’à moitié Moins vieux ou plus meurtris, ils vont le terminer Ils marchent en silence, les désespérés Et en dessous du pont, l’eau est douce et profonde Voici la bonne hôtesse, voici la fin du monde Ils pleurent leurs prénoms, comme de jeunes mariés Et fondent en silence, les désespérés Que se lève celui qui leur lance la pierre Il ne sait de l’amour que le verbe s’aimer Sur le pont n’est plus rien qu’une brume légère Ça s’oublie en silence, ceux qui ont espéré |
They hold hands and walk in silence In these darkened towns that the drizzle obscures Only their steps resound, step by step humming They march in silence, the desperate ones They burned their wings, they lost their branches So wrecked that death seems white They return from love, they woke up They walk in silence, the desperate ones And I know their path having walked it Already more than a hundred times, a hundred times more than half-way Less old or more bruised, they are going to finish it They walk in silence, the desperate ones. And under the bridge the water is soft and deep Here is the good hostess, here the end of the world They cry their names like young newlyweds And melt silently, the desperate ones. May he stand who throws a stone at them He knows nothing more of love than the verb "to love" On the bridge is no longer anything than a light mist It is forgotten in silence, those who hoped. |
NB:
1. Que le crachin balance: This is a mind-blowing line. “le crachin” means drizzle. When “que” begins a phrase (as it does 6 times in this song), it can have many meanings: one is to express a wish; or it can be an exclamation; or an indirect command; when followed by a subjunctive verb, it means “whether.” In this sentence, however, it simply means “that” and the action in the following words refers to the previous line. The verb “balancer” means “to balance” or “swing” but can have a poetic meaning equivalent to “equilibrate” like the weights in a scale. Its subject is “le crachin” (the drizzle) and its object is “ces villes éteintes” (the “darkened towns”) and the meaning of the verb lies in what the drizzle does to the towns, which one can imagine is to gently veil (or “obscure”) them in moisture.
2. la mort paraît blanche: this phrase is obscure but it seems to imply that the idea of death had lost some of its terror in the same way that “la nuit blanche” is a night without sleep.
3. Pour l’avoir cheminé: “pour avoir” (or, “pour être”) followed by a past participle references “having done/been” something in the past. It is a way of expressing cause or giving an explanation besides using "because" or "as a result of." In this case, the direct object “le” precedes “avoir” and refers to (and agrees with) “chemin” earlier in the same line.
1. Que le crachin balance: This is a mind-blowing line. “le crachin” means drizzle. When “que” begins a phrase (as it does 6 times in this song), it can have many meanings: one is to express a wish; or it can be an exclamation; or an indirect command; when followed by a subjunctive verb, it means “whether.” In this sentence, however, it simply means “that” and the action in the following words refers to the previous line. The verb “balancer” means “to balance” or “swing” but can have a poetic meaning equivalent to “equilibrate” like the weights in a scale. Its subject is “le crachin” (the drizzle) and its object is “ces villes éteintes” (the “darkened towns”) and the meaning of the verb lies in what the drizzle does to the towns, which one can imagine is to gently veil (or “obscure”) them in moisture.
2. la mort paraît blanche: this phrase is obscure but it seems to imply that the idea of death had lost some of its terror in the same way that “la nuit blanche” is a night without sleep.
3. Pour l’avoir cheminé: “pour avoir” (or, “pour être”) followed by a past participle references “having done/been” something in the past. It is a way of expressing cause or giving an explanation besides using "because" or "as a result of." In this case, the direct object “le” precedes “avoir” and refers to (and agrees with) “chemin” earlier in the same line.
Adaptations: The Desperate Ones
Eric Blau and Mort Shuman adapted "Les désespérés" into English as "Desperate Ones" in the 1968 musical revue “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” that opened in New York. It could as easily have been titled "Hopeless Ones." The song in that musical revue was performed by the cast Ensemble (Elly Stone, Mort Shuman, Shawn Elliott and Alice Whitfield). In the 1975 film of the same name, the song was performed by Mort Shuman, Elly Stone and Joseph Masiell. Nina Simone (1969) and Judy Collins (2013) also made covers.
Blau and Shuman retain Brel's repeated last-line refrain of “the desperate ones” throughout the lyrics but their song is less explicit about the details of the action. Their structure is the same 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. It replicates the narrative shift to the first person in the third stanza. They manage an AABB rhyme scheme throughout the piece. The side-by-side comparison of Brel’s lyrics, English translation and the Blau/Shuman adaptation is here.
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SECTION ONE They hold each other's hand, they walk without a sound Down forgotten streets, their shadows kiss the ground Their footsteps sing a song that's ended before it's begun They walk without a sound, the desperate ones Just like the tiptoe moth, they dance before the flame They've burned their hearts so much that death is just a name And if love calls again so foolishly they run They run without a sound, the desperate ones I know the road they're on, I've walked their crooked mile A hundred times or more I drank their cup of bile They watch their dreams go down behind the setting sun They walk without a sound, the desperate ones |
SECTION TWO And underneath the bridge, the waters sweet and deep There is the journey's end, the land of endless sleep They cry to us for help, we think it's all in fun They cry without a sound, the desperate ones Let he who throws a stone at them stand up and take a bow He knows the verb "to love" but he'll never know how On the bridge of nevermore they disappear, one by one Disappear without a sound, the desperate ones |