Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

24 Apr 2002, 17:31 p.m.

Reader Bob Smith was kind enough to send me the…

Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2002 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.

Reader Bob Smith was kind enough to send me the lyrics to the French birthday song "Bon Anniversaire," which (according to professional Frenchman Benoit) French people don't actually sing.

Bon anniversaire,
Mes voeux les plus sinc�res
Que ces quelques fleurs
Vous apportent le bonheur
Que l'ann�e enti�re
Vous soit douce et l�g�re
Et que l'an fini
Nous soyons tous r�unis
Pour chanter encore
(or possibly en choeur)
Bon anniversaire

Now that I've finally read the lyrics again, I am powerfully reminded of high school French classes. Whenever someone in the class had a birthday, Madame Funge slapped that transparency on the overhead projector and we sang "Bon Anniversaire." I can sing it fine, but I can't tell what meter it's supposed to be in. 3/4, I think.