ET SI VIEILLIR M’ÉTAIT CONTÉ…

Et si vieillir m’était conté… (What if aging told to me) is a song from the fifth studio album Innamoramento released in 1999.

Et si vieillir m’était conté… is one of the rare songs where lyrics and music are written by Mylène Farmer. Arrangements and production: Laurent Boutonnat. Mixing: Bertrand Châtenet

Can you recall the other few songs which she wrote both texts and music?

I will remind you 😊 TOMBER 7 FOIS, OPTIMISTIQUE-MOI, PAS LE TEMPS DE VIVRE….

To me by the beauty of the poetry, this song only compares to L’amour Naissant

When experiencing words in those songs I have such a sharp piercing pain in me for the lack of fluency in French…It’s achingly frustrating… but I am working on it. Every day spent in Mylene-verse brings me one step closer to feeling what she is feeling, getting the layered and sublingual meanings of her words, her hints and humor, her expressions and her allegories.. Be blessed those of you who can naturally absorb this beauty, this purity, this sophistication! I envy you from the bottom of my heart! Cherish the gift or being of the same culture and the language as Mylene 💕

“Growing old is one of the fears I have. The time that deposits on your face… But not only on the face! On the soul, on the feelings… Yes, that’s part of my obsessions!” (Mylène Farmer – Radio Alouette – 04/16/1999)

And yes the theme of fear of aging we have encountered with Mylene from the very get-go: her first noticeable hit Plus Grandir came out in 1985

Yet another 15 years later she still seems to straggle with an acceptance of the inevitable – aging.

She is turning 60 in 60 + days and I wonder what feelings are now she is facing and processing…I hear from elderly that the way the Soul perceives a life doesn’t change with age. It’s the body and sometimes mind are being compromised and limited. But again not for everyone and not the same way. Some manage to stay active and optimistic way passed 70s and even 80s, others are whoever lose the battle earlier. What does it depend on? Who know? But Mylene sure appears in command of time and youthfully radiant. Just look at her – totally gorgeous – in Cannes!

Mylène refers in this text to one of her favorite poets, Pierre Reverdy and more precisely to the poem Chute taken from the collection Flaques de verre (1929) in which we can read the following lines: “the long gloved hand of the night / pushes us and releases us “while Mylène sings on her side:” “The night of her gloved fingers / Unfinished image”.

It is so enchanting that she stays loyal to the same sources of inspirations (poets like Baudelaire, Reverdy, Emily Dickenson, Edgar Poe to name a few) as she is to people in her life…Wow – what a quality!

For Et si ageir m’être conté , Mylène takes up and adapts (with new arrangements by Laurent Boutonnat) the music she composed in 1994 for the song Madeleine by Headmess appearing on the LP Shade Underbelly. I had no idea!!! Have you?

“In this poetic-passionate register which gives pride of place to the revolts of adolescence (And if aging told to me) and to the pleasures of vertigo, the redhead Mylène is in her element, more angel than demon this time.” (Madame Figaro – 05/15/1999) – oh vey – what a dumb review 😊

“The harmony is perfect between the score and the word to set up disturbing atmospheres. Mylène Farmer cultivates a poet’s writing, far from the primed, predigested formulas of the traditional bluets. She knows, to evoke the languorous days, use the image without ever forcing his pen. the song Et si ageir m’être conté is a pure masterpiece, comparable to certain major titles of Gérard Manset, the only one capable, until now, of setting such subjects to music without falling into silliness or overdone melodrama. ” L’Est Républicain

Here is a detailed lyrics analysis of PtitGénie curtesy of https://www.innamoramento.net

Mylène describes the way she perceives approaching old age, her way of seeing the time that undeniably passes. And this perception evolves during life…

The night of his gloved fingers
Personification of the night in a person, surely a woman. It is a question here of death or old age. She wears gloves, so she is initially discreet, meticulous.
Unfinished image
It is this “night of gloved fingers” that is unfinished. We can see several meanings in this “unfinished”: the first is that this night is not complete, it is not yet totally there, but it is approaching… The second is that it is not perfect, that it is not enviable (one says of an art that it is “completed” when he is perfect in his way).
Soon the moon is full
This verse evokes the idea of ​​a countdown, the moon is full approximately every 29 days. A cycle reminiscent of life. The “soon” means that Mylène is near the end of this count, and that she is waiting for this moment when the moon will be full, or at least she is worried about it.

The night of his frail fingers
Here we come back to the idea of ​​”gloved fingers”: they are fragile. Mylène actually sees this old age as someone finally approaches but unwittingly, almost desolate.
Sculpt the dawn and the sky
“Dawn” corresponding to the first light of day, it can be an analogy of the past, more precisely of childhood. This old age therefore changes memories in its own way, changes our vision of them, we interpret them differently. “Heaven” evokes the relationship to God: aging makes men turn to religion. We turn to God for comfort, to believe in an afterlife.
God, how beautiful this woman is
Mylène is elated by the beauty of a woman who is not yet affected by old age, or perhaps is precisely what makes her even more beautiful as time goes by (note that Mylène gets more beautiful as she gets older! Could she be talking about herself here?). She even praises her qualities to God,

The night of her fairy fingers
Mylène continues the description of old age: she is very skillful in what she does, in her work. She knows how to reach those she needs to reach without being abrupt, she does it step by step, gradually. At least that’s what everyone hopes and wants to believe…

Touched on the image
Of passing happiness
The night is beginning to slightly erode certain “images of happiness” that Mylène had in her. At first she thinks that getting old doesn’t erase all hope, that all her little joys won’t completely disappear, because old age is only “grazing” them for the moment… Even if she admits that in any case it won’t are only fleeting joys, like all things in life.

She didn’t know how to love herself
Mylène speaks here of someone whom she saw growing old and who wouldn’t have been able to accept the passage of time, accept the person she has become (the marks of old age, wrinkles…). This rejection would have led him to abandon himself to anger, to almost indulge in madness. She uses the word “but” because this idea is in contradiction with the fact that old age is a very sympathetic woman at first sight, fragile, discreet, almost shy: she also makes people unhappy and takes them with her
… time has taken its toll
So she changes her mind, she only sees the faults and the bad sides, the indelible marks of old age. Now she sees the “ravages” of passing time, as if she had now reached a certain maturity to understand everything.

And if aging was told me
She imagines herself then: and if we told her the story of what she will be when she grows old?
Would I be there to love you
Mylène wonders if in this story she would like a certain person. Who ? We can suppose that she speaks again of this “woman”, of this incarnation of old age. Finally she wonders if she will like to grow old… Or, the most interesting thing is to think that here she speaks for herself: will she like what old age will do to her? This last hypothesis is also very probable, because it would refer to the previous verses ” But I saw the being carried away, she did not know how to love herself “. Mylène would like to know if she will have the same destiny as this person whom she saw sink in the same way, if she will be able to accept herself unlike others who cannot bear to grow old.
of

The days pass, the nights continue to mark the end of a day, undeniably bringing us closer to the end of the road. Mylène then makes an observation: this life which gave birth to her and brought her joy and happiness, family and friends, threatens her today to take everything back from one moment to another, even if that is already what she does over time.

The night of her iron fingers
Mylène no longer has the same vision of “aging”: for her now, she is a person who no longer has “gloved fingers”, “frail fingers”, “fingers fairy”. His actions are now more brutal, almost frightening.
Has damaged the flesh with
its cruel rust
As we know, the biggest trace left by the passage of time are wrinkles. Mylène describes this as something cruel, because she can’t help it, these “iron fingers” leave her no choice. Moreover, in the French language, in the figurative sense, “rust” defines any cause of decadence, of aging…
When time has deposited
Its familiar smile
It’s a step towards dust.
We could take “deposit” in the sense of ‘depositing one’s trace’, but it is more interesting to see it here as ‘leaving, getting rid of’. For “familiar”, we will take it in its definition ‘That we know well’. Clearly, Mylène explains that when you begin to perceive time without that “familiar smile”, that is to say when you begin to no longer understand it, no longer recognize it, when you can no longer taming it as we please as we did before is that we are getting closer and closer to the end…
“You were born dust and you will become dust again”.

remixes

There are not many remixes for this song (understandably so!) but are a few good ones below:

my poetry inspired by the song

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lyrics with translation

La nuit de ses doigts gantés
Image inachevée
Bientôt la lune est pleine
La nuit de ses doigts si frêles
Sculpte l'aube et le ciel
Dieu, que cette femme est belle
La nuit de ses doigts de fée
A effleuré l'image
D'un bonheur de passage
Mais j'ai vu l'être emporté
Elle n'a pas su s'aimer
Le temps a fait ses ravages
Et si vieillir m'était conté
Serais-je là pour t'aimer
D'autres nuits s'achèvent et la vie
A tout donné, tout repris
La nuit de ses doigts de fer
A abîmé la chair
De sa rouille cruelle
Quand le temps a déposé
Son sourire familier
C'est un pas vers la poussière
Et si vieillir m'était conté
Serais-je là pour t'aimer
D'autres nuits s'achèvent et la vie
A tout donné, tout repris
Et si vieillir m'était conté
Serais-je là pour t'aimer
D'autres nuits s'achèvent et la vie
A tout donné, tout repris
Et si vieillir m'était conté
Serais-je là pour t'aimer
D'autres nuits s'achèvent et la vie
A tout donné, tout repris
Et si vieillir m'était conté
Serais-je là pour t'aimer
D'autres nuits s'achèvent et la vie
A tout donné, tout repris


The night of his gloved fingers
Unfinished image
Soon the moon is full
The night of his frail fingers
Sculpt the dawn and the sky
God, how beautiful this woman is
The night of her fairy fingers
Touched the image
Of a passing happiness
But I saw the being taken away
She did not know how to love herself
Time has taken its toll
And if I was told to grow old
Would I be there to love you
Other nights end and life
Gave everything, took everything back
The night of his iron fingers
Damaged the flesh
Of its cruel rust
When time has deposited
Her familiar smile
It's a step towards the dust
And if I was told to grow old
Would I be there to love you
Other nights end and life
Gave everything, took everything back
And if I was told to grow old
Would I be there to love you
Other nights end and life
Gave everything, took everything back
And if I was told to grow old
Would I be there to love you
Other nights end and life
Gave everything, took everything back
And if I was told to grow old
Would i be there to love you
Other nights end and life
Gave everything, took everything back