26 | November | 2013 | Micheline's Blog

Tags

Colette Magny, Croquemitaine, el coco, Francisco Goya, French chanson, Le Grand Lustucru, Théodore Botrel, the Bogeyman

Here comes the Bogeyman

¿Que viene el coco?

Francisco Goya, c. 1797

(Photo credit: [all images] Wikipedia)

Francisco Goya (30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828)

Portrait of Francisco Goya,

by Vicente López y Portaña

(1826)

Oil on canvas, 93 × 75 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

Le Grand Lustucru

Please start the Video now. Lustucru is the second song.

Lustukru (Lustucru) is a croquemitaine (a bogeyman), a folkloric and transcultural figure who eats up children still awake past bedtime. Lustucru is el coco depicted by Francisco Goya, whose Tres de mayo 1808 (May Third 1808), 1814, and Desastres de la guerra, Los (The Disasters of War) constitute a haunting depiction of the horrors of war.

Théodore Botrel (14 September 1868 – 28 July 1925) is the composer of Le Grand Lustucru. His greatest success was La Paimpolaise (The Girl from Paimpol). At the height of his career, Théodore Botrel was associated with Aristide Bruant. He sang in his cabaret, Le Mirliton. However he performed mainly at the Chat Noir, a cabaret known because of Théophile Steinlen‘s cat posters, and at the Chien-Noir, a club.

This was Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec‘s Montmartre.

The translation of Le Grand Lustukru or Lustucru is mine.

1. Entendez-vous dans la plaine (Do you year in the plain)
Ce bruit venant jusqu’à nous ? (A noise reaching us?)
On dirait un bruit de chaîne (It seems the noise of a chain)
Se traînant sur les cailloux (Dragging itself over pebbles)

2. C’est le grand Lustukru qui passe (T’is tall Lustukru passing by)
Qui repasse et s’en ira (Passing by and will go away)
Emportant dans sa besace* (Taking away in his bag)
Tous les petits gars (All the little fellows)
Qui ne dorment pas (Who are not asleep)
Lon lon la, lon lon la
Lon lon la lire la lon la

*(besace: a bag often worn like a sporran)

3. Quelle est cette voix démente (What is this demented voice)
Qui traverse nos volets ? (Piercing through our shutters?)
Non ce n’est pas la tourmente (No, t’is not a storm)
Qui joue avec les galets (Playing with the pebbles)

4. C’est le grand Lustukru qui gronde (T’is tall Lustukru growling)
Qui gronde et bientôt rira (Growling and soon will laugh)
En ramassant à la ronde (Rounding up and picking up)
Tous les petits gars (All the little boys)
Qui ne dorment pas (Who are not asleep)…/Refrain

5. Qui donc gémit de la sorte (Who is moaning this way)
Dans l’enclos, tout près d’ici ? (In the enclosure [enclosed area] nearby)
Faudra-t-il donc que je sorte (Will I have to go out)
Pour voir qui soupire ainsi ? (To see who is sighing thus?)

6. C’est le grand Lustukru qui pleure (T’is tall Lustukru who weeps)
Il a faim et mangera (He is hungry and will eat)
Crus, tout vifs, sans pain ni beurre (Raw, alive, without bread or butter)
Tous les petits gars (All the little boys)
Qui ne dorment pas (Who are not asleep)…/Refrain

7. Qui voulez vous que je mette (Whom do you want me to put)
Dans le sac au vilain vieux ? (In the nasty old man’s bag?)
Mon Dorik and ma Jeannette (My Dorik and my Jeannette)
Viennent de fermer les yeux (Have just closed their eyes)

8. Allez-vous en méchant homme (Go away bad man)
Quérir ailleurs vos repas ! (Get your meals elsewhere!)
Puisqu‘ils font leur petit somme (Since they’re napping)
Non vous n’aurez pas (No you won’t have)
Mes deux petits gars… (My two little boys)…/Refrain