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    Les éléphants du Morimondo → English translation

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Les éléphants du Morimondo

Rappelle-toi de ce vieux roi déchu
Dans son royaume dégénéré
Et de sa cour trainant son crâne
Dans les jardins, illuminée
Par les yeux de la reine en sanglot
Cachée en haut de la colline
Elle prit la fuite, anonyme
En assemblant un vieux rafiot
Elle navigua pendant des lunes
Sur le tissu des océans
Pêchant les grenadiers fantômes
Et leurs arêtes de diamant
Elle s'oublia dans les tempêtes
Vendit son âme à des murènes
Se battant contre des sirènes
Auprès des navires de pirates
Demi-déesse des quatre vents
Adoptée par tous les dieux sombres
Elle échoua sur une terre
Pure vierge et inconnue des Hommes
Elle s'autoproclama la reine
Nouvelle de ce territoire nu
Dressant son armée d'écumeurs
Au rythme des meurtres et du chahut
 
La reine démon du Morimondo
La reine démon du Morimondo
 
Elle invoqua la pluie des braises
Habillant chaque graine de poussière
Puis les lacs en ébullition
Fondait le récif comme le glaçon
La reine dans son palais de flamme
nommait l'orage comme émmisaire
Pour qu'il transporte et sans frontière
L'horreur aux dix milles horizons
Mais dans les grottes encore indemnes
Nait en secret la résistance
Menée par cinq milles éléphants
Armés de courage et de transe
Ils ont enfilés leurs armures
Conçues en os de braconniers
Imploré les esprits du vent
De la montagne et des marées
 
Les éléphants du Morimondo
Les éléphants du Morimondo
 
(Solo)
Et aux prières des éléphants
Répondent les grands corbeaux de Lune
L'armée des bandits cormorans
Et des vautours mangeurs d'écume
Les nuées d'anaconda volants
Les ours de la plaine Ezebrune
Les millions de sauterelles carnivores
Les loups aux machoires enclumes
Les veuves noires, les panthères blanches
Les fées du pays d'Orévance
Les lynxs palmés, les Lions larcènes
Les grands gibbons souffleurs d'abeilles
La horde des bisons souterrains
Et les moustiques de quatre mètres vingt
Les chiens savants chasseurs de vagues
Les derniers elfes du Gandrague
 
La bataille du Morimondo
La bataille du Morimondo
 
Les affrontements durèrent de Printemps
emportant nombreuses vies
Le vent transporte encore aujourd'hui
Les vibrations d'antan
On dit que les marées avalèrent
L'ensemble du pays
Et qu'au fin fond d'une mer aride
Prospère un royaume d'éléphants
 
Translation

The elephants of Dyinland

Remember this old deposed king
in his degenerate kingdom,
dragging his skull from his court
to the gardens lit by
the eyes of his sobbing queen.
Hidden atop the hill,
she fled, anonymous,
by patching together an old boat.
She sailed for months
the fabric of oceans,
fishing ghost rattails
with their diamond fishbones.
She lost her mind amid tempests,
sold her soul to moray eels,
fighting against mermaids,
side by side with pirate ships.
demigoddess of the four winds,
adopted by all the dark gods,
she ran aground on a land
that was pure, virgin and unknown to man.
She named herself the new queen
of these barren lands, taming her
army of sea dogs, to the rhythm of
murders and bedlam.
 
The demon queen of Dyinland
The demon queen of Dyinland
 
She invoked the rain of embers
coating every seed with dust,
Then the boiling lakes1.
The reefs were melting like ice cubes.
The queen, in her palace of flames,
appointed the storm as her emissary,
to spread across all frontiers
horror to the ten thousand horizons.
But in the yet spared caves,
resistance was secretly born.
Led by five thousand elephants,
armed with courage and transe.
They put on their armour,
made of poacher bones.
They beseeched the spirits of wind,
mountains and tides.
 
The elephants of Dyinland
The elephants of Dyinland
 
(solo)
And to the elephants' pleading calls
answered the great Moon ravens,
the army of cormorant bandits
and seefoam-eating vultures.
The droves of flying anacondas
The bears from the Wazbrown plain
The millions of flesh-eating locusts
The anvil-jawed wolf
The black widows, the white panthers
The fays from Highdream lands
The lynxs with webbed paws, the Larsen lions
The great bee-blowing gibbons
The herd of underground bisons
And the 4.2m long2 mosquitoes
The wave-hunting savant dogs
The last elves from Sweepglow
 
The battle of Dyinland
The battle of Dyinland
 
The hostilities lasted all spring,
costing many lives.
The wind still carries today
echoes of bygone times
They say the tides swallowed
the whole land
and at the bottom of an arid sea
an elephant kingdom thrives.
 
  • 1. With a slight transcription error (fondait -> fondaient), the two lines could merge in a single sentence (the boiling lakes melted reefs like ice cubes) that would make more sense
  • 2. A "420" is a popular small sailboat, named after its length (in centimeters)
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Comments
GavinGavin
   Wed, 02/11/2016 - 15:53

Blimey! I'd have never worked out "grenadier phantom"...
Some fantastic creatures in there - must have been rather fun translating them

Suggestions:

I think I would say "demigoddess" rather than half-goddess

I'm not sure I'd say "beached" - it's correct but it just makes me think of whales.
Maybe "washed up" or "ran aground"

I rather like sea wolves but not sure where it's coming from. Aren't these just pirates?

Rhythmed is a bit awkward - I'd stick with "To the rhythm of..."

Fays is a bit archaic but...nah probably just fine in this setting

Vibes feels a bit out of place though; too 60's (man). Maybe stick with "vibrations" or "echoes"

The place names are all pretty good I think as English reflections of the French.

Bon boulot! :-)

/edit

Just spotted a little one: transe -> trance (although not quite sure what it means here)

GavinGavin
   Wed, 02/11/2016 - 15:56

Oh yeah well a sea dog is an old a sailor. A salty old sea dog. I'm not aware of us calling pirates wolves of the sea but that's not to say it isn't good, it's very descriptive.

GavinGavin
   Wed, 02/11/2016 - 16:00

It's a PC minefield and no mistake ;-) Fays probably fits the whole mystic feel here.

GavinGavin
   Wed, 02/11/2016 - 16:20

Oops sorry - another little one - "They put on their armour" - not "armors" (it's always singular)

GavinGavin
   Wed, 02/11/2016 - 16:36

Yep, group noun like fish and fruit. You can't have an armour although you can of course have a piece of armour.
You guys do it with grapes though just to keep us confused! Les dieux mangent du raisin.

Not sure about year though.... 10 years etc

And hair is a special case. And so are fish and fruit. They're *usually* group nouns
It's hard isn't it! ;-)

GavinGavin
   Wed, 02/11/2016 - 16:52

Oh yes there is that - a ten year old.
I spend half my life explaining this sort of thing on Duolingo. Also meuble(s)/furniture/item of furniture

Blows peoples' minds for some reason... ;-)

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