GAINSBOURG, Serge (1928-1991)
Autograph manuscript
N.p.n.d. [Paris, 1990], 3 p. in-4°
« Oh, I would love to / Drown in the pond / Like Ophelia / Forget the time / Let myself slip without / Thinking of forgetting »
Fact sheet
GAINSBOURG, Serge (1928-1991)
Autographed manuscript in first draft with numerous unpublished variations
N.p.n.d. [Paris, early 1990], 3 pages in-4° on watermark paper, each foliated by Gainsbourg
An additional page in Gainsbourg’s hand for the development of the verses and choruses
Two sheets complete this manuscript with a fair copy (possibly in the hand of Franck Langolff?)
Gainsbourg remixes Rimbaud
Complete manuscript and first draft of Ophélie, the fifth track from the album Variations sur le même t’aime, performed by Vanessa Paradis
« Oh j’aimerais tant
Me noyer dans l’étang
Comme Ophélie
Oublier le temps
Me laisser glisser sans
Penser l’oubli
Laisser ce goût de cendres
Refroidies et descendre dans la nuit
Les méandres inconnus
De l’amour qui s’enfuit
Mais j’aimerais l’inconnu de l’imprévu
Moi j’aimerais tant
Que tu m’aimes autant
Jour et nuit
Que la [belle] Ophélie
Dérivant tombée des nues
Frôler les nénuphars
[Toutes les plantes rares]
Comme [la blanche]
Ophélie… Ophélie
Des traces de cent
pour cent c’est là le sang
Comme celui d’Ophélie
Se ronger les sangs
À quoi bon les san-
glots dans l’ennui
J’aimerais tant
Que tu m’aimes autant
Que je t’aime moi-même et le temps
[Qui] de temps en temps
Efface le présent
Pour être plus sur
[Du passé] du futur »
The result of a bold collaboration between Vanessa Paradis (vocals), Serge Gainsbourg (lyrics), and Franck Langolff (music), the album Variations sur le même t’aime was recorded between February and April 1990 at the Studios Guillaume Tell in Paris. In an interview on TF1’s evening news on May 27, Gainsbourg explained that he “spat out the lyrics in eight days—that’s why I say ‘Paradis is Hell,’ it was hellish, it nearly killed me.” Released on May 28, 1990, the album was a tremendous success. Certified gold and platinum, it sold 400,000 copies. Gainsbourg passed away nine months later.
A final tribute to Rimbaud:
Gainsbourg never hid his fascination for the poet of Charleville-Mézières. Just like the poetry of Baudelaire or Verlaine, Rimbaud’s writings had always permeated the singer-songwriter’s imagination. As he once expressed: “I’m going to try to reach Rimbaud, I want to get close to him… One day I’ll find him again, somewhere in Abyssinia, where he was trafficking arms and gold…”
In the fifth track of the album, Rimbaud’s Ophélie subtly emerges in the background. It is not the first time Gainsbourg explored the theme of Hamlet’s tragic heroine. One may recall his song La Noyée, which he performed only once—on November 4, 1972, during the TV show Samedi Loisirs.
Here, the many cross-outs and corrections in the lyrics reveal a search for the right words that was clearly less fluid than for the other tracks on the album. Gainsbourg hesitates, revises, and seeks the perfect sound. Though a daunting challenge, his pastiche of Rimbaud’s Ophélie stands out as a paragon of literary reworking, a hallmark of his most iconic texts crafted in homage to his cursed idols.