Serge Gainsbourg Le Poinçonneur des Lilas English subtitles

One of Serge Gainsbourg's earliest works from 1958 about a little man who works in a hole, makes holes all day, the last one may be in his own head. Thanks to philipchek of YouTube and Paris for turning me on to this great song and for help with the translation.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Serge
• Gainsbourg
• English
• subtitles
• french
• chanson
• '50s
• subway
• suicide
• conductor
• job
• disatisfaction
• alienation
• labor
• capitalism

[joshster89]

"Holes for 2nd Class", "Holes for 1st class"? Plus the sign for "1e classe" would lead me to believe the Paris Metro has different service classes? Is this true?

[VNRose3]

@joshster89 philipchek of Paris answers:

Yes, there were two "classes", first and second, which means that in a subway train, there where generally one subway wagon, reserved for first class (more comfortable, lower number of people inside, etc...). The first class system in the subway have been cancelled in 1991.

In the sentence, Gainsbourg makes humor, because of course the puncher made same holes in the tickets, there were not two "class" of holes :))

Ph.

[Gacu001]

Was this "guy" Serge Gainsbourg a/the composer? or is Serge the one singing in the vid??... I really wanna know :3

BTW, awesome song, the lyrics are so "acid" and funny, and you can take really deeper... very goOD! (that's why im curious hehe)

[VNRose3]

@Gacu001 Serge Gainsbourg is both the writer/composer and performer here.

[escribidor1960]

It seems to me there is a little nuance this translations skips: a more accurate translation for "des trous de seconde classe" would be in my opinion "second-class holes" in order to keep the ironic of the song. "Holes for second class" makes lose a little bit this ironic sense. But the translation is very good in general.

[ali460ful]

Unforgetable , serge best chanson ever. his top 10 : (my personal opinion) 1.poinconner des lilas. 2. je taime...moi non. 3. .elisa 4. la javanaise. 5. .les sucettes 6. Poupee De Cire, Poupee De Son 7 . Lemon Incest 8. Couleur Café 9. je suis venu te dire 10. Souviens toi de m'oublier

[ps69]

A brilliant composition. He captures the manic banality of modern life so effectively.

[svrack]

Is this Gainsbourg singing? or has it been dubbed over? His voice seems to have has a higher pitch in this video, ,maybe its the playback rate...

[signature50]

Next time some pillock tries to tell you that Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen was the first pop video, refer them to this! (1958!)

[701NorthCourt]

@Gacu001 In France we've been used to saying Serge Gainsbourg was both ugly and irresistibly charming. Quite a paradox...

[Gacu001]

@VNRose3

Could've requested help form St. Google xD, right?... sooO THANKS!

[Eniluap2803]

Of Course Serge is the composer, the singer and the writer! He is, for me, the best French Singer ever. A Real Genius. I love him and i think that his songs will continue to be listen, and never demodate !

<3 Love You Lucien Ginsburg, his real name :).