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  • Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine

    Guichet 102 → English translation

  • 2 translations
    English #1, #2
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Guichet 102

sont-ce mes yeux dingues ou opaques
taillés dans du verre-cathédrale
et rouillés à la fleur de pack
qui perdent leur vision normale
ou bien sont-ce ses doux effluves
de petit animal pastel
qui plongent mes rêves dans une étuve
et brûlent mes nerfs aux étincelles
 
sont-ce les dernières lueurs du jour
au rythme bleu des ambulances
qui libèrent un appel d'amour
dans ma tête rongée de silence
ou bien sont-ce ses seins si frêles
sous son zomblou de basketteuse
son sourire de jaguar femelle
dans l'oeil de ma débroussailleuse
 
la nouvelle la p'tite bleue
du guichet 102
joue le flou dans le feu de ses yeux
moi qui la mate un peu
dans la fumée de ma beuh
je me demande si je
patauge pas dans son jeu
 
sont-ce ses nénuphars si doux
ses roses parfums de vieil empire
ou ses lotus à feuilles d'hibou
qui viennent tourmenter mes désirs
sont-ce ses oiseaux migrateurs
dans le fouillis de ses cheveux
soleils au chakra de son coeur
qui frappent au clavier de mes voeux
 
la nouvelle la p'tite bleue
du guichet 102
joue le flou dans le feu de ses yeux
moi qui la mate un peu
dans la fumée de ma beuh
je me demande si je
patauge pas dans son jeu
 
sont-ce les visions de sa fêlure
aux lèvres lilas de son spleen
qui me font hisser la mâture
et gonfler ma voile zinzoline
sont-ce ses doigts de chloroforme
sur son petit castor fendu
qui miaule à minuit pour la forme
au rayon des fruits défendus
 
la nouvelle la p'tite bleue
du guichet 102
joue le flou dans le feu de ses yeux
moi qui la mate un peu
dans la fumée de ma beuh
je me demande si je
patauge pas dans son jeu
la la la la la...
 
Translation

Desk 102

Is it because my crazed or cloudy eyes
hewn from stained glass1
and rusted by beer2
are losing their usual vision?
Or maybe it's her sweet
small animal scent
that stews my dreams3
and burns my nerves with sparks
 
Is it the last glimmers of dusk4
interspersed with blue ambulance lights5
that release a call to love
in my head eroded by silence?
Or is it these so frail breasts
under her basketball jacket,
her female jaguar smile
in my blade on a pole6's eye?
 
(chorus:)
The new girl, the cutie newbie7
at desk 1028
plays on the hazy fire in her eyes.
As I cast a surrepticious lurid glance at her
through my cloud of weed smoke
I wonder if I might
be bluntly playing in her hand.
 
Is it their sweetest water lilies9
her roses smelling of old empires10
or her lotuses with owl leaves11
that come and plague my desires?
Is it their birds migrating
through the tangle of her hair,
(like) suns over her heart's chakra12
that pounce on my wishes keyboard?
 
(chorus)
 
Is it the visions of the crack13
between the lilac lips of her melancholy14
that drive my mast upward
and blow into my reddish15 sail?
Is it their chloroform fingers
on her little split beaver
that meow16 perfunctorily at midnight
on the forbidden fruits stall
 
(chorus)
la la la la la...
 
  • 1. Thiéfaine has indeed beautiful pale green eyes
  • 2. My best bet for "flower of pack". Thiéfaine loves to elaborate on his intimate relationship with various psychotropic substances
  • 3. "put my dreams into a steam room"
  • 4. a metaphor for old age
  • 5. ... and sickness
  • 6. A "débroussailleuse" is an electric weed cutter. I did my best to find an English analog (from "bell on a pole") :)
  • 7. "bleu" means "newbie", "greenhorn" and "petite" clearly implies cuteness here. The verse basically says the same thing twice for aesthetic reasons. I tried to render that in English too
  • 8. no idea what if anything that might allude to
  • 9. Thiéfaine has already used water lilies as a metaphor for eyes in another song. Still I don't really know what virtues he associates with these particular flowers :)
  • 10. my best guess is that he refers to her cheek
  • 11. He got me lost there. Hands maybe?
  • 12. If you say so, Hubert...
  • 13. Thiéfaine is without a doubt refering to her vulva and his penis in the whole verse, again with more than less unusual metaphors
  • 14. "spleen" is unambiguous in French, unlike in English
  • 15. A very dated and unusual color name Thiéfaine seems rather fond of. Pretty adequate for your average penis head though :)
  • 16. And now we get meowing chloroform fingers... Where it is going to end, I shudder to think!
Idioms from "Guichet 102"
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