Talk:Au clair de la lune

Recording
Does anyone think that a recording of the actual song could be put up, at least a short segment of it, to be compared to the 1860 recording? That's why I actually came to this page, to hear the song in a better sound and compare the two, but it's the same 1860 recording, so I'm still not quite sure what it should sound like. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.242.40.144 (talk • contribs) 03:46, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

I came to this site for the same reason as the anon. If someone could put up another recording of the song it would be great.

Regards. --Npnunda (talk) 02:22, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I've added a link to http://gauterdo.com/ref/aa/au.clair.de.la.lune.html that contains a 1931 recording by Yvonne Printemps playing in the background. Korg (talk) 00:24, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Requested move
{move|Au Clair de la Lune}

"Au Clair de la Lune (song)" appears to be the primary topic, so I would suggest to move the page to Au Clair de la Lune; the disambiguation page could be moved to Au Clair de la Lune (disambiguation). Korg (talk) 01:11, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, definitely. Relata refero (talk) 14:14, 30 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Support. Good catch. Andrewa (talk) 17:32, 30 March 2008 (UTC)


 * ✅ Done. Sandstein (talk) 17:56, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Korg (talk) 22:04, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

1860 recording
The line of the song being sung in this recording is actually "...Pierrot répondit" rather than "...mon ami Pierrot" as stated. The website of FirstSounds (the organisation that originally decoded the recording, and made it available for download) gives the correct line, but in any case it should be obvious from listening to the recording. 217.155.20.163 (talk) 12:48, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
 * FirstSounds appears to be mistaken, since the recording contains the beginning of the song ("Au clair de la lune, mon ami Pierrot, prête..."). While the majority of news media quoted the press release, a few other websites, but also some commentators in forums and blogs, gave the first line or noticed the misquotation:, , , , . Korg (talk) 17:26, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Un Français?
Why is the song only shown in English, then two alternate versions in French? Shouldn't the "classical" French lyrics also be in the article? As I understand it, the lyrics are: ''Au clair de la lune,

Mon ami, Pierrot,

Prete-moi ta plume

Pour ecrire un mot!

Ma chandelle est morte,

Je n'ai plus de feu;

Ouvre-moi ta porte,

Pour l'amour de Dieu.

Au clair de la lune,

Pierrot repondit:

"Je n'ai pas de plume,

Je suis dans mon lit;

Va chez la voisine,

Je crois qu'elle y est;

Car dans la cuisine,

On bat le briquet."'' (Taken from http://www.kididdles.com/lyrics/a039.html)

The quotation marks might very well be guillemets, but that's more of a stylistic thing than anything else, oui? —MicahBrwn (talk) 19:50, 26 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Oh, heck. It's been about two days.  Time to be BOLD and add it myself.
 * ✅Done. Incidentally, I got the lyrics from the following page:  http://www.mamalisa.com/?p=161&t=es&c=22 If it needs to be cited, there's the link. —MicahBrwn (talk) 04:54, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

double entendre
"The song is now considered a lullaby for children but carries a double-entendre throughout (the dead candle, the need to light up the flame, the God of love, etc.) that becomes clear with its conclusion."

What double entendre? Alphapeta (talk) 09:37, 13 October 2011 (UTC)


 * I never noticed it before, but yeah, it's clearly there. See my link to a translation of the French Wikipedia article on the song below for more info on that.  The phrase "that becomes clear with its conclusion" is misleading, though.  That appears to have originally referred to what's now shown as the second-to-last verse, which ends with "With all that looking / I don't know what was found, / But I do know that the door /Shut itself on them".  With the verse ending "For the child all white, / The moon gives him, / Its crescent of silver." (which actually doesn't appear in the French article at all), that doesn't really make sense, so I'll make some adjustments.  --Dan Harkless (talk) 02:00, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

plume vs. lume
Ok, I've seen a couple things that say it was originally lume, for light, not plume, for pen, as looking for a pen when your candle is burnt out makes no sense. Is there anyone who can confirm this? Source: http://ibiline.blogspace.fr/1299150/Au-clair-de-la-lune/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBCIXSVHfqc (in the description) both say it should be lume (I had to use a translator to read it, though). I'd like to teach my friend who's learning French the song, but I want to make sure I'm getting the accurate, original version! --70.253.72.17 (talk) 02:04, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Those two sources cannot be regarded as reliable in the sense of WP:RS. For a start, there doesn't seem to be a noun lume in French; see fr:Wikt:lume. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 04:09, 27 December 2012 (UTC)


 * However, 'lume' does mean 'light' or 'fire' in other Romance languages (Italian, Portuguese), and 'lumiere' means 'lamp' in French. I think it's quite possible that 'lume' could have been the original word in some 16th century French dialect. But I agree that's merely speculation. - J. Conti 108.20.137.173 (talk) 05:50, 17 December 2014 (UTC)


 * I think that if the original song used the word lume, that is what we should have it say in the lyrics. The lyrics that we show should be that of the original song.  The note written below the lyrics can instead say that later versions use the word plume because...
 * The reader should be shown the original version first. Then if that's all they look at, at least they'll know the original.  --Appple (talk) 17:54, 3 October 2017 (UTC)


 * As mentioned in the prior discussion on this, a reliable source stating "lume" was the original would be needed to change it. Even French Wikipedia only says "According to some sources", and cites just one (ironically a book in English published by the University of Texas press).  See Google Translate's translation of the French article.  There's also additional interesting info in that article about the double entendres.  --Dan Harkless (talk) 01:49, 4 October 2017 (UTC)


 * Actually, the French article cited two sources, not one — they were merged into a single citation in a nonstandard way. The second source is a U.S.-published book in English as well.  In any case, I adjusted the wording of the claim to say 'Some sources report that "plume" (pen) was originally "lume" (an old word for "light" or "lamp").', and ported these citations over from the French Wikipedia article, adding "" on them.  --Dan Harkless (talk) 02:38, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

When the song first appeared in writing
As of publishing this discussion, the page claims that the first known appearance of the song was in the 18th century, but also puts the first written record at 1820. Different articles on the song/tune put it at different dates.Regardless, the current text of the page portrays dissonance JayBirdtyper (talk) 00:41, 8 November 2022 (UTC)