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Translation
Like a sister
Like a sister, head cut away1, head cut away
she looked like her doll2, like her doll,
Into the river, she came
to soak her little foot a bit, her little foot3.
With a trick of my own design, my own design,
I made myself look like a fish, like a fish.
I disguised myself as a sperm whale4
and I lay down at the bottom of the water, at the bottom of the water.
I had the good luck, thanks to this method, thanks to this method,
to munch a bit of her foot, a bit of her foot.
Never did a shark, I guarantee it,
ever taste anything as good, anything as good.
She punished me for this cheekiness, for this cheekiness.
by keeping me altogether helpless, altogether helpless5.
And I had, in order to make her pity me,
to pretend to drown, to drown.
Convinced of having killed me, having killed me,
there she was now, getting softer, getting softer,
there she was, kissing me and biting me
to bring me back from the dead, back from the dead.
If that’s the fate we must endure, we must endure,
at the time of our last breath, last breath,
if that is the lot of those who drown
I’m going back again, I don’t care about water, about water.
To her family’s house, the next day, the next day,
I ran to ask for her hand, ask for her hand,
but as I didn’t have anything
in mine, they shouted at me “Be gone!”, shouted “Be gone!”
They delivered it to the appetites, to the appetites
of a sort of profiteer, of profiteer,
a right swindler, a big bag of gold,
older than Herod and than Nestor, and than Nestor.
And since their mariage I’ve waited, waited,
my heart on burning coals, burning coals,
for the Reaper6 to come and
cut the grass at the feet of that skinflint, of that skinflint.
When she is a tearful widow, a tearful widow,
after having properly buried him, buried him,
my hope7 is that she will come
to find her niche in my arms, in my arms.
- 1. She was up to her neck in the water, so she looked like a separated head
- 2. like a plastic doll’s head floating on the water
- 3. maybe a pun on “menu” is intended as the foot gets bitten in the next but one verse so could be on the menu as well as being small. But I can see no way of doing that pun in English
- 4. but cachalot sounds like “cache à l’eau” which means “hide in the water”, and disguise as a sperm whale in a river is likely to be rather conspicuous
- 5. literally “holding my beak in the water”, but I think it means either keeping helpless or continually and thoroughly telling off for longer than is reasonably endurable, and I guess the former is a better fit to the context
- 6. feminine personification of death
- 7. or, perhaps, expectation
michealt✕
Georges Brassens: Top 3
| 1. | Je me suis fait tout petit |
| 2. | Les passantes |
| 3. | La mauvaise réputation |
Idioms from "Comme une sœur"
| 1. | ask for a hand |
| 2. | Bon à rien |
Comments
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