The song title “La Vie En Rose” literally translates (according to various internet translation machines) as “The life in rose” or “life pink”.
There must be a colloquialism here - something like “The good life”???
Anybody know?
Yep. Think: “seeing life through rose-coloured glasses”.
Answers, we have answers.
I recently fell in love with this song again through Madeleine Peyroux’s 1998 version on her “Dreamland” CD. Peyroux is an American, who studied abroad in France, and sings so close to Billy Holiday, and Bessie Smith, that (as one critic wrote) Peyroux must be channeling the very spirt of Holiday. Trust me, it’s haunting how similar she sounds.
Nonetheless…Lyrics are:
"Hold me close and hold me fast
The magic spell you cast
This is la vie en rose.
When you kiss me, Heaven sighs
And though I close my eyes
I see la vie en rose.
When you press me to your heart
I’m in a world apart
A world where roses bloom
And when you speak
Angels sing from above
Every day words
Seem to turn into love songs
Give your heart and soul to me
And life will always be
La vie en rose.
I thought that love was just a word
They sang about in songs I heard
It took your kisses to reveal
That I was wrong, and love is real.
Hold me close and hold me fast
The magic spell you cast
This is la vie en rose.
When you kiss me, Heaven sighs
And though I close my eyes
I see la vie en rose.
When you press me to your heart
I’m in a world apart
A world where roses bloom
And when you speak
Angels sing from above
Every day words
Seem to turn into love songs
Give your heart and soul to me
And life will always be
La vie en rose"
NOTES: As found online (not my words)
Song author, Louiguy b. 1916 nee: Louis Gugliemi
<< This French musician is best recalled for such songs as “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White”, which became a huge hit for bandleader Perez Prado when he recorded it as a mambo. Louiguy’s “La Vie En Rose” virtually became Edith Piaf’s theme song (she wrote the lyric). Up into the 1970’s, Louiguy was actively working in the French motion picture studios, where, among his other work,he scored famed French actor Jean Gabin’s last gangster movie, ‘The Verdict’. >>
And yes, though my French is terrible at my age (my Japanese is much better) the song title is along the lines of, “Rose colored VIEW”.
Jet Black
What’s wrong with the obvious “Life in pink”? Makes sense as a metaphor to me in English.