Serge Gainsbourg - Bonnie and Clyde (English translation)

Serge Gainsbourg – Bonnie and Clyde

English translation

English

Translation

#12 3 4

Bonnie and Clyde

You’ve read the story of Jesse James?1

How he lived, how he met his end?

You liked it, huh2? You’re asking for more?

Well then, listen to the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

So here it is: Clyde has a girlfriend.

She’s beautiful, and her first name’s Bonnie.

The two of them make up the Barrow Gang3—

their names: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.

Bonnie and Clyde,

Bonnie and Clyde.

[Bonnie] When I first met Clyde, back then,

he was a loyal guy, honest and straight.

Looks like it must be society

that ruined me for good.

Bonnie and Clyde,

Bonnie and Clyde.

What haven’t they written about her and me?

They claim we kill in cold blood.

It’s not funny, but we’re downright obliged

to silence whoever starts hollering.

Bonnie and Clyde,

Bonnie and Clyde.

Each time a policeman gets bumped off4,

a gas station or a bank gets held up,

for the cops there’s no mystery to it:

it has Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker written all over it5.

Bonnie and Clyde,

Bonnie and Clyde.

And now, every time we try to go straight6,

to settle down quiet in a furnished room7,

within three days it’s the rat-a-tat-tat8

of machine-guns coming back on the attack.

Bonnie and Clyde,

Bonnie and Clyde.

[Clyde] One of these days, we’ll go down together.

I couldn’t care less; it’s Bonnie I fear for.

What do I care if they do me in9?

[Bonnie] Me, Bonnie—I tremble for Clyde Barrow.

Bonnie and Clyde,

Bonnie and Clyde.

Anyway, there was no way out left for them;

the only solution was to die.

But more than one followed them to hell

when Barrow and Bonnie Parker died.

Bonnie and Clyde.

1. Jesse James: famous American outlaw of the 19th century; primes the “outlaw ballad” theme.
2. Conversational tag mirroring French “hein,” drawing the listener into complicity.
3. The real historical name of their crew during the early 1930s.
4. Gangland slang for “killed.”
5. Idiom: “obviously done by them.”
6. Idiomatic: to leave crime and live legally.
7. A cheap, temporary rented room—signals life on the run.
8. Onomatopoeia for machine-gun fire.
9. Colloquial for “kill me.”