"Frère Jacques" (mind the spelling) is a "traditional" nursery Rhyme / lullaby song. I learned it in school when I was just a small kid: "Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques... Dormez vous? Dormez vous? Sonnes les matines, sonnez les matines, din, din, don. Din, din, don." In English: "Are you sleeping, are you sleeping? Brother John, Brother John... Lorning bells are ringing, morning bells are ringing. Ding Ding Dong, Ding Ding Dong." In German: "Bruder Jakob, Bruder Jakob, schläfst du noch? Schläfst du noch? Hörst du nicht die Glocken, hörst du nicht die Glocken? Ding dang dong, ding dang dong." In Italian: "Fra Martino, campanaro, dormi tu? Dormi tu? Suona le campane, Suona le campane! Din don dan, din don dan." In Spanish: Martinillo, Martinillo. ¿Dónde estás? ¿Dónde estás? Suenan las campanas, Suenan las campanas. Ding dang dong, ding dang dong. In Dutch: "Broeder Jacob, Broeder Jacob, slaapt gij nog, slaapt gij nog? Alle klokken luiden, Alle klokken luiden, bim, bam, bom, bim, bam, bom."
The exact French lyrics for Frère Jacques (by the way, thanks for the grave
accent on the first e of «frère») are as follows:Frère Jacques, frère Jacques
Dormez-vous, dormez-vous?
Sonnez les matines, sonnez les matines
Ding, dang, dong
Ding, dang, dong.As far as I know, for having asked a few colleagues of French, Swiss and
Belgium origins, those lyrics are the same in France, in French-speaking
Switzerland and here, in Québec.Matines, in French, are the bells ringing for the morning mass or that
service itself. «Matin» means «morning», «matinée» approximately means
«morning time», etc.
In Polish it goes something like:
Panie Janie, panie Janie
Rano wstań, rano wstań
Wszystkie dzwony biją, wszystkie dzwony biją
Bim, bam, bom
Bim, bam, bom
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