La Belle Dame Sans Regrets

This song is about France. You can tell from the lyrics - they are in French. I love France, and I guess so does Sting. They have hot chicks and cheese! If you like wine, they have hot chicks, cheese and wine which is all you need for a date.

See here, where he says "La belle dame sans regrets" that means I ring my bell and I am not sad about it. In France they have lots of bells so everyone is ringing them. And after ringing your bell you eat some good grains as in "Tu semes les graines" which is a good laxitive and makes digesting cheese easier.

Well, bugmenot is closer than they think to the actual meaning. The song is really about France, but not specifically about their fine dairy products. It's about their above-ground nuclear testing.

France is the beautiful woman with whom the singer is dancing. She breaks his heart because while she is beautiful, she says and does horrible things seemingly just to anger him.

I'm not making this up, I read it in an interview when the album came out.

Here is a translation.

The Lovely Woman Without Regrets

You say let's dance And me, I am My steps are awkward my feet you walk on I search in vain for words To understand your life, Then

Chorus You lie, my sister You break my heart I think, you know Errors, Never I listen, You speak I don't understand well The lovely woman without regrets

I cry, You laugh I sing, You scream You sow the seeds Of a bad oak My wheat flies away You shaved the bowl I wait, Always You don't hear my cries You lie, my sister You break my heart I think, you know Errors, never I listen, you speak I don't quite understand The lovely lady without regrets

Are you taken aback? Of course. I figured if he said it was about nuclear testing, then it was. It's so funny what we notice first--"you lie, my sister." And I do, but I wonder what lie prompted this line. Do you know? It wouldn't benefit you to know so I won't say. Would you say I have no regrets? Think for a moment. What regrets do you have? What do you regret--but consider only what you had control over--which wasn't much. I regret not having more of my wits about me? You always ask too much of yourself. I regret never meeting. It's not your regret. Meeting wasn't written into the screenplay. There was a screenplay?! I'm laughing. Of course! So, lovely song for some tiresome babe who does things just to anger the dancer. What a meanie you are! I'm not. I never even stuck my feet in his face even though he was playing my brother. I behaved.
I think he felt you would never get around to the translation and for all intents, you are quite, quite late. Why race to find out you have been a mystery when you worked so hard to clarify? AND a meanie, to boot! Oh well.
You would say, oh well. You are the lovely lady without regrets. See how blasé you are about all of this? It's an old song.
Botti just included it on a recent cd... I'm presuming this is loaded with poetic license ... I am of course pondering being compared to nuclear testing. Well, I happen to find the analogy amusingly appropo. Really ... maybe I don't know either one of you two funny guys ... maybe you're both like ...freeloaders!

You wish... [I see you're grinning for a change...]

Voilá pour vous. Y a-t-il des cartes postales pour moi? Dans quei sens jois-je aller? Nous voudrions un chocolat. Je perds. Vous gagnez. Voulez-vous jouer le cavalier? Vous jouez très bien.

Look up John Keats - La Belle Dame Sans Merci

This song is closely related and seems to bring that poem to life in a way. The lady is always one step ahead and the narrator cant help but follow...

Oops, the lady is sans merci ... without mercy ... a much sadder poem than the song.

There are barely any beautiful france girls keep that in mind;)

Some beautiful French women: Audrey Tautou, Ludivine Sagnier, Sophie Marceau, Julie Delpy, Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Beart, Virginie Leydonen, Eva Green, Anne Parillaud, Natacha Regnier, Elodie Bouchez, Nathalie Baye, Irene Jacob, Vanessa Paradis, Isabelle Adjani, Brigitte Bardot, Marie-Josephe-Rose Tascher (Napoleon’s Josephine), Edith Piaf, Marie-Jeanne Bécu (Madame DuBarry), Marie Duplessis (La Dame aux Camélias [Camille]), Apollonie Sabatier, and so many more … Hoping to change your opinion …

O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, [What’s up with you, knight?] Alone and palely loitering? [Alone, looking pale and holding the walls up] The sedge has wither’d from the lake, [The grass-like plant with a triangular stem often growing in wet areas is dead] And no birds sing. .[Birds don’t sing—gee, that one was tough]

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms! [Knight, what’s your problem?] So haggard and so woe-begone? [You look awful and what’s with the long face?] The squirrel’s granary is full, [It’s not like you’re starving …] And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow [A lily?! …. You look pale?] With anguish moist and fever dew, [makes you look sickly …]
And on thy cheeks a fading rose [You still look pale—color’s gone from your cheeks] Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the meads, [I met a lady in the meadows] Full beautiful—a faery’s child, [A lovely fairy child] Her hair was long, her foot was light, [She had long hair and was light on her feet]
And her eyes were wild. [She had wild eyes]

I made a garland for her head, [Made a circlet of flowers for her hair] And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; [made little ones for her arms and …] She look’d at me as she did love, [She looked at me—she loved me] And made sweet moan. [and moaned so sweet …]

I set her on my pacing steed, [I put her on my horse] And nothing else saw all day long, [and spent the day with her] For sidelong would she bend, and sing [every now and then she would sing] A faery’s song. [a fairy song]

She found me roots of relish sweet, [Yum—she dug up some sweet roots] And honey wild, and manna dew, [wild honey and the hardened sugary exudation of various trees] And sure in language strange she said— [She talked strange and said] “I love thee true.” [ I truly love you]

She took me to her elfin grot, [She took me to her small elfin cave (usually with attractive features)] And there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore, [Wept and sighed] And there I shut her wild wild eyes [So I closed her wild wild eyes] With kisses four. [with four kisses]

And there she lulled me asleep, [She lulled me to sleep] And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide! [I had a bad dream] The latest dream I ever dream’d [I never had a dream like this one]
On the cold hill’s side. [It was cold]

I saw pale kings and princes too, [Kings and princes were pale too] Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; [Everyone needed a tan] They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci [They cried “lady without regrets”] Hath thee in thrall!” [we think so highly of you]

I saw their starved lips in the gloam, [I saw their starved lips in the twilight] With horrid warning gaped wide, [what a horrid wake up call!] And I awoke and found me here, [Woke up and here I was] On the cold hill’s side. [Sleeping out in the cold on some hill]

And this is why I sojourn here, [So, I’m back] Alone and palely loitering, [Alone, looking pale and holding the walls up] Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake, [Even though this isn’t the happiest place] And no birds sing.