What is the song about?
A woman chooses and tries on clothes. She touches the fabric, looks at the colors, searches for the right size, and steps into the fitting room. She wonders if the dress is too tight or too loose. Next, she puts on a cape and a heavy coat, and thinks of the tailor who sewed her clothes. In the end, everything fits her perfectly. The setting is poetic: soft light, wind, mountains, and the setting sun.
Useful words and expressions
Clothing
- une robe, une cape, un manteau, un vêtement, une tenue (the set of clothes one wears)
- les manches: the parts that cover the arms
- le col: the part around the neck
- le tissu, le drap, la laine, le velours, le fil: the materials
- la taille: the size of a garment (petite, moyenne, grande). Note: la taille also means the part of the body above the hips (the waist).
- serré (too small, tight against the body) ≠ large (loose, with plenty of room)
- la cabine (d'essayage): the small space where you try on clothes in a store
- le tailleur: the person who sews custom-made clothes
- bleu, vert, rouge, noir, argent, or (paré d'or = decorated with gold)
- ça me va comme un gant: this garment fits me perfectly
- tenir chaud: ce manteau me tient chaud = it keeps me warm
- essayer un vêtement: to put it on to see if it fits well
- mettre / porter: je mets ma cape (the action of getting dressed), je porte cette robe (I have it on)
Grammar
- The present tense of very common verbs: je tiens, je vois, j'essaie, je regarde, je mets, je porte, j'écoute.
- Devoir + infinitive for an obligation: Je dois bien trouver la taille idéale.
- Questions with inversion: Est-ce un peu trop serré ? (formal form of C'est un peu trop serré ?).
- Adjective placement: some short adjectives go before the noun (une belle robe, un beau vêtement, ce lourd manteau), while colors go after (un manteau noir).
- Agreement: une cape faite de velours (faite is feminine, like cape); une grande, une moyenne, la petite are feminine because they refer to la taille.
- The passé composé in the bridge: Le tailleur a pris… et (a) cousu…
Note: what the rhyme changes
- Un rouge et argent sur mon tendre col: one would normally say du rouge et de l'argent sur mon col. Tendre col is a poetic image, not a common expression.
- Ou est-ce très large et touchant le sol ?: in everyday French, you would say et qui touche le sol.
- Ce n'est pas banal is mostly there to rhyme with idéale; here, it doesn't mean very much.
- Le tailleur a pris chaque belle mesure: the normal expression is prendre les mesures (of someone).
- J'entre en cabine: it is more common to say j'entre dans la cabine (d'essayage).
- Douce comme la terre and le ciel émouvant are images chosen for the rhyme; they are not usual comparisons.