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La Paisana  
(The Peasant Woman) (The Country Maid)
Traditional song from the Vesubie valley, County of Nice.
According to a pastourelle collected by Damase Arbaud.
Within the text of this song written in gavot (i.e. in nissart from the hinterland), the endings “o” –una paisano, la lano, li ràubo– are the feminine marks of this language. Also notice persistency of the final “r” –sentir, trouvar– in the infinitive.
| 1st verse |
La filha
Se voulès sentir ’na cansoun,
Se voulès la vous canterai.
Es facho d’una paisano (twice)
Que cada jou filo la lano. (twice) | | The girl
If you want to listen a song,
If you want I’ll sing it to you.
It is made of a country maid (twice)
Who every day spins the wool. (twice) |
2nd verse |
Lou moussù
Li a lou moussù de la Court
Que la ven veire cada jou.
Es un moussù que la ven veire, (twice)
Vous autres, lou vous poudès creire. (twice) | | The man
There is the gentleman from the Court
Who comes and visits her everyday.
It’s a gentleman who comes to see her, (twice)
All of you, you can believe that. (twice) |
3rd verse |
La filha
O, moussù, se mi diès ensin,
Faguès, faguès vouostre camin.
Anas trouvar vouostre pariero, (twice)
Li miéu ràubo son tròp grossiero. (twice) | | The girl
Oh! Sir, if you speak to me thus,
Go, go your way.
Let go and meet again your fellow creatures, (twice)
[Because] my dresses are too coarse. (twice) |
4th verse |
Lou moussù
Mio, avès bouòni façoun,
Semblès la filho d’un baroun.
Ren que tu m’au tiéu blanc visage (twice)
Mi vàlon iéu e davantage. (twice) | | The man
Beloved, you have such fine manners,
You seem a baron’s daughter.
You alone with your pale face (twice)
Are worth me and more. (twice) |
5th verse |
La filha
Iéu, l’aiga, noun la crègno pa,
Lou soulèu, l’ai acoustumat.
N’ai un capel de peiro-plumo (twice)
E lou soulèu, l’ai per coustumo. (twice) | | The girl
Me, the water, I’m not afraid of it,
The sun, I got used to it.
My hat is of “stone-feather” (twice)
And the sun, I get it as a suit. (twice) |
6th verse |
Lou moussù
Bello, se pilhes tiéu parié,
Ti farà far au siéu mestié.
Ti farà trimar en campagno, (twice)
Lou matin, pilharàs l’aigagno. (twice) | | The man
Belle, if you marry a fellow man,
He’ll have you work like him.
He’ll make you work hard in the fields, (twice)
Early in the morning, you’ll be dewy. (twice) |
7th verse |
La filha
Moussù, se n’aviéu miéu parié,
Quauqu’un dei gent dal miéu mestié,
Beniriéu lou jou e lou sero (twice)
Per n’en devenir la siéu fremo. (twice) | | The girl
Sir, should I have a fellow man,
Somebody [among] people of my job,
I would bless the day and the evening (twice)
To become his wife. (twice) |
| Bibliography | | • | Arbaud (Damase), Chants populaires de la Provence (Popular Songs from Provence), Aix, Makaire printer and publisher, series “Bibliothèque provençale – Chants populaires et historiques de la Provence”, volume II, 1864, p. 145-147. | | • | Tosan (Albert), Princivalle (Gaël) and d’Hulster (Frédéric), Anthologie de la chanson du comté de Nice (Anthology of the Song from County of Nice), Nice, Serre publisher, series “Encyclopædia niciensis – Patrimoine régional”, volume III, 2001, p. 202. |
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