User talk:Submulocity

The interpretation of this song is problematic, and the description of its meaning in the article does not fit either the French original or the English translation. The French lyrics imply a male singer who rejects the rosebud offered by his female friend. The gender of the friend is clearly marked as female: mon amie 'my female friend', ma douce amie 'my sweet female friend', the latter phrase consisting of a feminine noun followed by two feminine adjectives. Since the singer's gender is not explicitly expressed−in contrast to the grammatical marking of that of the friend−it must be inferred from context: assuming that the rosebud/maidenhood is an exclusive property of females, the most plausible interpretation, at least for earlier historical times, is that the singer is male. In the English translation, the phrase "a rosebud I kept from her" would seem to suggest that both the singer and the friend are female, since the singer is depicted as being the owner/manager of the rosebud. This might seem to suggest a lesbian relationship, though it is difficult to fit the rosebud=maidenhood metaphor into this picture; in any case, such an interpretation is not likely in view of the presumed age of this version of the song.

Another version, in which bouton de rose 'rosebud' is replaced by bouquet de roses 'bouquet of roses', is suitable for heterosexual couples in both directions, i.e. with either a male or female singer and a friend who is female or male, respectively. When the singer is female, the words referring to the friend, mon amie [pronounced /mon amiœ/] 'my friend (Fem.)' and ma douce amie /ma dus amiœ/ 'my sweet friend (Fem.)' are changed to mon ami /mon ami/ 'my (male) friend' and mon doux ami /mõ duz ami/ 'my sweet (male) friend' respectively. Both possibilities are illustrated graphically by YouTube cartoons1,2 in which the singer turns down the friend's offer of a bouquet. The version of the song which is sung by a girls' choir at the end of the film "The Painted Veil"3 presupposes a female singer and a male friend.

There are other difficulties with the interpretation of the poem. Referring to verse 5 the article states, "the singer wishes it [the rosebud] were still intact and could still be given to her long-lost lover". But if the female singer refused to give the rosebud, or the male singer refused to accept it, why is it not still intact ("still on the bush", as in the translation)? The 'bouquet of roses' version avoids this difficulty, but does not help us to interpret the 'classic' version. A Canadian version,4 which apparently contains cryptic references to the 18th-century British conquest of Canada, avoids the problem in a different way: the rosebud is said to represent the English invaders, while the rosebush stands for England; thus the final verse expresses the wish that the British had stayed in England. In a variant of this version, the last line reads: Et que le rosier même fût a la mer jeté 'And that the rosebush itself had been thrown into the sea'.5

As with many long-lived folksongs, it may be necessary to study a number of current and earlier versions in order to fully understand the meaning.

References 1. http://www.resolvedall.com/tube/9MV-Pov6JTQ/a-la-claire-fontaine 2. http://www.resolvedall.com/tube/ljVCAUBtbKg/a-la-claire-fontaine 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P2F9fb_Z-s) 4. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/À_la_claire_fontaine 5. http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=34