I am interested in a good translation to english of the french words
sang at the end of the song, "The Professor" by Damien Rice.  I have
had particular trouble with some of the translation because of a few
of the words such as "dodo."  Below are two versions of the end of the
song.  If this is possible, great and thank you.  Otherwise, I still
thank you.  Francis.

"La fille danse
Quand elle joue avec moi
Et je pense que je l'aime des fois
Le silence, n'ose pas dis-donc
Quand on est ensemble
Mettre les mots
Sur la petite dodo"

AND

"La fille danse
Quand elle joue avec moi et la pluie
Elle me manque
Pourquoi?
Non,non
C'est la chanson, la nuit, le vent
L'amour , le son
De la petite Dodo"

Hi Francis,

A friend of mine who is fluent in both English and French provided
these translations:

The girl dances
When she plays with me
And I think I sometimes love her
Well, silence does not dare
When we are together, 
Put the words
to rest (or "to sleep")

The girl dances 
When she plays with me and the rain
I miss her
Why?
No, no 
It's the song, the night, the wind 
The love, the sound of sleep.

Literally "la petite dodo" means a little sleep or nap.

I hope this is helpful.

Best regards,
Rainbow

I give three stars mostly because I have no answer to compare to the
one given.  I guess the translation could be better and worse...I just
don't know how.  Overall, I am pleased with the answer.  Thank You.

francisaddison-ga

How is your inability to compare the answer given with another answer
the Researcher?s fault. The Researcher provided you with exactly what
you asked for, and should have been rated according to the quality of
the answer provided, not because you have a problem with comparing the
answer with another one. You may be unaware but Researchers take their
rating averages seriously. It is grossly unfair to give this
Researcher a 3 star rating with the reason you provided.

I'm with Orion, it isn't the researchers fault you don't know a little
French to test her answer on. I speak French and reading through the
answer found it a most satisfactory translation. With songs, there
could possibly be an alternate meaning that you don't know unless you
hear the play on words, but considering all you provided was text, the
translation was perfect. Even the abnormal comment, "Plays with me and
the rain" instead of "In the rain" is literal from what you typed even
though it is a somewhat odd thing to say.

If you want to compare it to something, try a computer translator. You
will find this correct translation much more useful to you.

I went to Altavista to give you a computer translation. You will see
the quality difference:

The girl dances When it plays with me And I think that I like it times
silence, does not dare say-therefore When one is Mettre together the
words On small the dodo

Does the girl dance Quand it plays with me and It I miss the rain
Pourquoi? Not, not It is the song, the night, the wind the love, the
sound Of small Dodo

Now that I consider the recent comments, I realize I should have given
more thought to and commented more on my rating.  I apologize to
rainbow-ga for not doing so in the first place.  This is the first
time I have used google answers and I certainly have more to consider
for the future.  I think the main problem with my rating and comment
is that I did not elaborately think about the two.  I also do not
consider three stars to be a very bad rating but i do agree that they
should not result from the reasoning I provided.  Once again, thank
you rainbow-ga.  And thank you to those who commented, orion56-ga and
senatus-ga.

francisaddison

I am french and my english is poor.
But i can say the translation for "dodo" is wrong.
It is right that "le dodo" refers to sleep in childish style, but note
that the gender's term is male.
"la dodo" would be the girl's nickname, almost certainly from the
surname : "Dominique"

Hope this helps,
regards

LE DoDo means (to take a littel nap in child langauge)
LA DoDo could very well mean (Docile or la docilite)soft / tenderness.

"The girl is dancing,
and when she plays with me,
I think I like (could be "love" depending on the feelings expressed
before) her sometimes,
Silence doesn't even dare,
when we are together
put some words
on the little dodo" (I wouldn't translate dodo by a nap since it is
masculine in French and in this case it is feminine, so I would
consider it as a nickname usually for Dominique...).

"The girl is dancing, 
and when she plays with me and the rain
I miss her
Why ?
No, No
It is the song, the night, the wind
the love, the sound 
of the little dodo"

a French guy working in Dallas