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LT → French, Latin, Portuguese → Peste Noire → J’avais rêvé du Nord → English
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    Peste Noire

    J’avais rêvé du Nord → English translation

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J’avais rêvé du Nord

Entre Martigues et Marseille
Trempant dans les eaux de l’Afrique
Fortune a dicté qu’on m’asseye
À deux pas de Fos la septique…
 
Où moi être né mer schlinguer le gazole
Sous ciel oxydé et soleil de plomb sale
Tombant épais comme camisole
Au creux des tours de succursales ;
 
Où moi être né taule et plastoc horizonner
Chaque bout de terreau rissolé comme le désert d’Arizona,
Seules mouches-à-maille aimer zonner
Dans ce gigantesque sauna et
 
Où moi être né jamais trop bon s’aventurer :
La flicaille a perdu ses couilles devant les tribus d’
Qui pour un regard te troueraient
Si trop pâle est ta bouille…
 
Car où moi être né ça plus être la France,
Nos splendeurs gothiques :
D’la caillasse en déliquescence
Taguée d'invectives exotiques…
 
Jaune aux yeux bleus tout calciné
Planté dans le mauvais décor
Quêtant ma juste destinée
J’avais d’un coup rêvé du Nord
 
D’étendues vierges et boisées,
D’un permafrost amène
Sur lequel plus jamais croiser
L’éternelle aversion ébène.
 
J’eus voulu crevasser Phébus
Y redarder toutes ses flèches
Pour qu’il se crashe comme un Airbus
Entre Marseille et Marrakech
 
Et tu m’es apparu miroir, frangin de haine,
Généreux pourvoyeur de crépuscules et de glaces,
Discordant cor de la rancœur européenne
Soufflant des fanges sur les contempteurs de ma race
 
Toi Métal Noir ! Forgé dans la nuit des garages
Comme un obus artisanal
Fait moitié-rêve moitié-rage,
 
Toi Métal Noir ! Sortant des tripes de la terre
Comme une énorme sonde anale
Exploser des villes entières !
 
Toi Métal Noir acier découpailleur de gorges
Éperon fatal national
Faisant que roses du rouge dégorgent,
 
Toi Métal Noir dont soudain, j’ai emprunté les ailes
D’immense corbeau boréal
Pour m’arracher bien loin, vers de plus nobles citadelles !
 
Translation

I Had Dreamed of the North

Between Martigues and Marseille
Dipping in the waters of Africa
Fate has dictated that I sit
Close to the septic tank...(1)
 
Where I was born the sea reeked of gasoline
Under the oxydized sky and the sun blazing, dirty with lead
Falling as thick as straitjackets
Between Permanent Establishment buildings;
 
Where I was born sheet metal and plastic horizoned
Each piece of browned earth like the Arizona desert,
Only riff-raff like to hang around
In this gigantic sauna and
 
Where I was born it was never a good idea to venture out:
The cop lost his balls in front of the gangs(2)
Who would put a hole through you
If your face was too white...
 
Because where I was born is no longer France,
Our gothic splendors:
Those of rotting stone walls
Tagged with exotic swear words...
 
Yellow with blue eyes, all tanned
Planted in the wrong setting
Begging for my fair destiny
I had suddenly dreamed of the North
 
Of undeveloped and wooded tracts,
Of a welcoming permafrost
Across which will never again pass
The eternal aversion to ebony.
 
I had wanted to crack Phoebus
And shoot back all of his arrows
So that he would crash like an Airbus
Between Marseille and Marrakech
 
And you appeared to me as a mirror, a brother in hatred
Generous provider of twilight and ice,
Discordant horn of European resentment
Blowing mud on those who scorn my race
 
You Black Metal! Forged in garages at night
Like an artisan bombshell
Made half-dream half-rage,
 
You Black Metal! Emerging from the bowels of the earth
Like a huge anal probe
To blow up entire cities!
 
You Black Metal steel cutter of throats
Deadly national ram(3)
Making red roses bleed (4),
 
You Black Metal sudden, I borrowed the wings
From the immense northern raven
To tear myself far away, towards nobler castles!
 
✕
Peste Noire: Top 3
1.Dueil angoisseus
2.Dans ma nuit
3.J’avais rêvé du Nord
Comments
StonedZAStonedZA    Mon, 30/04/2012 - 12:09
Quote:

I sincerely apologize if I made any mistakes

No problem your translation seems far more accurate than a direct Google translation which made absolutely no sense.

Quote:

PS Not that anyone cares, but this is my fiftieth translation!

Congrats and thank you for the translation.

Herzwerk R.o.DHerzwerk R.o.D    Fri, 31/08/2012 - 21:21

Good job translating it!

A couple of corrections:
Tombant épais comme camisole > Falling as thick as straitjackets
Au creux des tours de succursules > Between Permanent establishment (PE) buildings

mouches-à-maille > it's a pun between "mouche-à-merde" (a kind of fly that eat shit) and "mailles" (slang for money). I have no idea how to translate it though.

La flicaille a perdu ses couilles devant les tribus d’ > he actually sings "les tribus d'crouilles", "crouilles" between the worst insult for Arabs (equivalent of the n-word), which is why it's censored.

D’la caillasse en déliquescence > Decaying ruins ("caillasse" is slang for "money", but also for "stones")

D'un permafrost amène > Of a welcoming permafrost

Epéron is a spur, but also a naval ram.

Pour m'arracher bien loin > To leave far away

shisashisa
   Sun, 09/09/2012 - 18:10

Thank you for all of these corrections! I changed everything you mentioned, and I credited you in the Author's comments. It's really helpful to know what a native speaker understands when they see certain phrases, since the parts that make them up often have nothing to do with the compound meaning or there are multiple meanings and I choose the wrong one. Thanks again for your help! If and when I make mistakes in the future, feel free to let me know.

~汪明远

shisashisa
   Sun, 09/09/2012 - 18:07

Thank you so much for your help! I corrected most of the things you mentioned and credited you in the Author's comments. Two things: I didn't know how to insert the pun on Fos-sur-Mer, so I left it as it was. Also, as a native English speaker, I would say that "reek" is a stronger word than "stink," so I left that too. Thanks again!

~汪明远

deadjdonadeadjdona    Thu, 11/07/2013 - 10:36

any chance to have a girl's part of song translated or at least written down????

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