Carolyn, I'm afraid you're mistaken and Jansy is right.
"prends garde DE toi" doesn't mean anything in French. You must mistake "prendre garde à" (prends garde à toi = watch yourself) for "se garder de" which means "to be wary of" (Carmen warns Don José to BE WARY OF a woman in love: C prévient DJ qu'il doit SE GARDER D'une femme amoureuse).
Laurence Hochard
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:41:44 -0700 From: chaiselongue@EARTHLINK.NET Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] de fencing lessons To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
It may be what Google says, but it is incorrect --- should be "prends garde de toi" --- I don't have a copy of the libretto at home but I will try to get to one soon.