III.iv. The Closet Scene - French Rock Opera

Johnny Hallyday's concept album includes two songs relevant to the Closet scene. "Ta mère est putain" (Your Mother Is a Whore) does not feature Hamlet's voice, but rather uses the chorus - either the voice of the Danish people or whatever devil is on his shoulder - and an up-tempo reprise of "The Old King Is Dead" motif that links many of the scenes. Here it is, followed by the French lyrics, and then my translation into doggerel:

Ta mère est putain
Le vieux roi est mort
Ta mère est putain
Te voilà d’un coup
Deux fois orphelin
Le vieux roi est mort
Mais pas encore froid
Qu’on change les draps
Pour un autre roi
C’est mal
C’est mal
C’est mal

You Mother Is a Whore
The old king is dead
Your mother is a whore
You, in a single stroke
Are twice orphaned
The old king is dead
But still isn't cold
That the sheets are changed
For another king
It's wrong
It's wrong
It's wrong

The short song is related to the Closet scene only insofar as it pushes Hamlet to visit his mother with violent intent. It's what he hears in his head as he goes up the steps. The second song, is "Pour l'amour" which actually has a double meaning. It can be translated as "For love" (which is what I've done in the translation), but it is also an expression that shortened "For the love of God", equivalent to "For God's sake" in English. Bear this in mind as you read the translation. Hamlet is at once saying "for love" and expressing his (untranslated) dismay. Once again, a video, the original French, and an English translation devoid or rhyme and meter.

Pour l'amour
Pour l’amour, vous n’avez plus l’âge
Votre sang est devenu sage
Votre chair est devenue molle
Et vos seins se rapprochent du sol

Pour l’amour, vous n’avez plus l’âge
Vous ne savez plus, plus faire naufrage
Vous n’avez plus l’eau à la bouche
Ni la tempête quand on vous touche

Arrêtez de tordre vos mains
Je ne crois pas à vos chagrins
Les crocodiles pleurent comme vous
Laissez-moi tordre votre cou

Pour l’amour vous n’avez plus l’âge
Votre corps est un marecage
Le moindre souffle y fait des plis
Il sent la vase et le moisi

Pour l’amour vous n’avez plus l’âge
Pourquoi bisser un mariage
Pourquoi vous maquiller d’ivresse
Vous étiez si belle en tendresse

Arrêtez de tordre vos mains
Je ne crois pas à vos chagrins
Les crocodiles pleurent comme vous
Laissez-moi tordre votre cou, etc.

For Love
For love, you no longer have the age
Your blood has become tame
Your flesh has become soft
And your breasts are closer to the ground

For love, you no longer have the age
You no longer know how, how to shipwreck
Your mouth no longer waters
Neither do you feel the storm when you are touched

Stop wringing of your hands
I don't believe in your chagrins
Crocodiles cry like you do
Let me wring your neck

For love, you no longer have the age
Your body is a swamp
The smallest breath makes it fold
It smells like mud and mold

For love, you no longer have the age
Why encore a marriage
Why make yourself up in drunkenness
You were so beautiful in tenderness

Stop wringing of your hands
I don't believe in your chagrins
Crocodiles cry like you do
Let me wring your neck, etc.

As you can see, Hallyday uses a lot of Shakespeare's original words, but is even more insulting regarding his mother's age, particularly in the first stanza (for rhyme, most likely). In the second, the shipwreck metaphor is a common poetic image of intercourse, the ship landing, spent, on the beach, and it prefigures Hamlet's disappearance at sea later in the play. While Hamlet attacks his mother on the grounds that she's entered into another marriage for lust, the comparison between the two husbands is merely suggested by the use of contrasting metaphors. The first stanza's images are all about earth, and the second about water. In the fourth, we see a merging of the two, as a swamp, which brings us back to the image of a decaying Denmark. How one husband has tainted the memory of the other.

The refrain also contains a shortcut to the rest of he scene. Instead of "let me wring your heart", Hamlet says "let me wring your neck", which introduces the violence of the scene. Gertrude's death is prefigured in the image of drunkenness (Claudius) vs. Hamlet Sr.'s tenderness, the poison cup of wine lyrically already at her lips. Polonius' murder, the Ghost's intervention, these are left as impressions and do not appear in the songs themselves. To a listener not familiar with the play, there are missing pieces of the puzzle. Gertrude is not brought into Hamlet's secret. The song ends with the prince still distrusting his mother.