Les échardes (The Splinters/Shards)
“Les échardes” first appeared on Cardin’s debut EP “Big Boy” in 2016 and then again on her follow-on EP “Main Girl” in 2017.
The song refers to shards or splinters (“les échardes”), but of the emotional kind, so one knows it’s about a relationship-gone-wrong. It’s a short tale of lost love that begins well, cradling each other like lovers playing a game. It was a time with playful spirits and blue skies, but time brought broken threads, painful shards and thorns in the heart. Slowly, lives slipped through a window of troubles, though love remained behind.
Like many Cardin songs, it’s a short piece that logs 159 seconds. The verses are punctuated by lilting refrains with vocal gymnastics on a roller coaster of sound. Three Verses with 4-line stanzas alternate with three Refrains. Rhymes are straightforward and simple. Accompaniment is piano/drum with an occasional drum withdrawal to highlight the clarity of piano/voice.
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FRENCH LYRICS Verse 1 Berçons-nous comme des amoureux Comme si ce n'était qu'un jeu Et que tout pouvait changer Si on jouait bien les dés On s'est laissé faner sous Les ciels bleus de nos yeux doux On se lasse, nos coeurs se nouent Puis on s'oublie et Refrain Ça passe ah ah ah ah Ça passera Verse 2 Temps perdu, fils que l'on rattache Les échardes que l'on s'arrache Je voudrais que tu saches L’épine au coeur Refrain Se replace Ah ah ah ah ah Se replacera Verse 3 Par la fenêtre de nos ennuis On a vu s'enfuir nos vies Et on a couru après Évidemment sans succès Refrain Ah ah ah ah ah ah Je t'aime et t'aimerai Ah ah ah ah ah ah Je t'aime et t'aimerai |
TRANSLATION (PENDERGAST) Verse 1 Let's cradle each other like lovers As though it was only a game And that everything could change If we played the dice well We let ourselves wither under The blue skies of our gentle eyes We tire, our hearts tangle Then we forget each other and Refrain It passes ah ah ah ah It will pass Verse 2 Lost time, threads that we reconnect The splinters that we rip out I wish you knew The thorn in our hearts Refrain Settles back Ah ah ah ah ah Will settle back Verse 3 Through the window of our troubles We saw our lives slip away And we ran after them Obviously, without success Refrain Ah ah ah ah ah ah I love you and will love you Ah ah ah ah ah ah I love you and will love you |
NB:
Et que: is a French expression with several uses one of which is to serve as an idiomatic exclamation at the beginning of a sentence or phrase as in the line above where it precedes “tout peut changer.”
s'est laissé faner: “se laisser faner” means to ‘let oneself go’ and lose vitality, beauty or spirit with its reflexive phrasing emphasizing the sense of passive surrender and things being “out of control.”
la fenêtre de nos ennuis: this is an arresting metaphor that may achieve some currency.
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