Niandra la Des
Joi, 19/11/2020 - 02:07
Thank you very well done I was looking forward for a translation of this masterpiece
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Traducere
Tomorrow Is Far Away
Ink flows, blood sheds.
The blotting paper
Soaks up emotion, sacks images from my memories
Im talking about what my kin lives and what I witness
Men sunk by despair and drifting away
Guys who tear into each other for 3 grands of hash
Im talking about everyday, listen closely, it won't be a laugh.
Laugh, smile, some have lost theirs, I'm thinking of Momo
Who told me "later" once, and was never seen again.
Courting the Devil to escape Hell, you made it brother
But misery keeps going for all those pushing behind
Pushing, growing, in a field of concrete
Growing up in a parking lot and watching older bros make moolah
Poverty makes you think in a heartbeat
We cut, we press, we split, we wrap, we sell
We're churning in crack's money
Yeah, that's life, and dont mention minimum wage here, here, here
Here, what youth dream of is a Golf GTI,
A Tacchini tracksuit, landing chicks easy, like Manny.
I too have a blast watching "Scarface", like everyone else
Thank God, I grew smarter, while he croakes in the end.
Death. The end. The end justifies the means.1 4, 5 shady jobs
And we can hold until tomorrow, then we'll see
We walk in the shadows of evil from dusk till dawn
Lurking in a corner, blade in hand, modern highwaymen
Highways. Fastways. There's only one to become God
Strike like a hammer, dont look down, envious, greedy
One way in, two ways out, three quarter length jacket,
Succeed, vanish, become a memory.
Memories, to be so young and have a full notebook of guys
Wiped off the map, like a blackboard. Pow ! you're out.
Believe in whom, in what, guys here are all like mirrors,
Walk the same way, want to fill their pockets.2
Pocket, closet. We live and end in one before going to hell.
On earth we build our own paradise
A fiction, disillusion is too strong, get the pot out
Reality hits too hard, we need an escape.
Escape. Escape. Use your imagination. Here, all is grey
Walls, minds, rats at night
We want to escape this prison, the clock ticks, time for action
Smoke screen, one day you lose your mind.3
Mind. Brains. Some are lucky enough to have any.
Others got theirs blown out for a handful of greenback, brothers at war
Weapons are growing like weeds
The gangster's mythos spreads like gangrene, sows its seeds.
Seeds. Seeds. Seeds of delinquent, what did you hope for ?
From the cradle, we teach them that nothing makes a man but money
From a discreet maverick to organised crime, the seeds turn to roots
Too big, impossible to stop.
Stopped. Arrested. Jinxed on the way in, lucky on the way out.
You get 3 months, the noise goes around, reputation swells
Prison bars don't scare anymore, it's routine, a common thorn
A light sketch of black ink that sometimes comes alive.
Alive. Enlivened by a cash frenzy
Darkness falls, no matter the weather, we roll the dice, we have to gamble
Win and lose, come back with a few more bills
That will help, no one will ask where they fell from.
Falling or not. For all, for nothing, we take the chance, no big deal cuz.
Anyway, In both cases, we'll be OK
Live like a dog or like a prince, no contest
We made our choice, put meat on the grill and flash the gold.
Gold. A golden dream. Pockets are full but the target is far.
The arrow rebounds, the devil adds an ugly notch, these guys
Cross out their own names, shoot for cash, I can hear bells, the sound of spades
Digging a hole, it's all too easy
Easy. Easy like the jacket of the submissive bourgeois
Like a piece of porcelain on a windshield 4
Tchac ! Razor blade on the handbag, and here comes the dough
And that's all day, tomorrow, after tomorrow.
Tomorrow ? Thats not the issue, we live day to day
We dont have the time else we lose money, others will take it.
Tomorrow is far away, we're not in a rush, slowly and surely
We move on and watch our asses to allow ourselves a future.
Future, the future won't change a thing, the next generations
Will be worse than us, their lives will be more morose
Our future is the minute after the goal, anticipate,
Prevent before we get nailed.
Nailed. Nailed on a bench, nothing else to do, we drink beer
And catcall the broads that don't have any brother.
Walls stick to us like flypaper
We're here, we'll never get out of it, Satan takes us for a ride.5
Ride. Riding chances at every second,
Each opportunity is a new stone for our slings
Against their lasers, some lose hope, many hit the ground
The stubborn ones refuse the suicidal fight.
Fight. Fighting disbelief, the gods are watching humanity walk
Deliberately and briskly to the wrong end of eternity.
We prefer hanging down here, we'd get bored up there
And only here will angels sell you smoke.
Smoke. One last puff. The veil has fallen.
Head on the pillow, shit has faded for a moment
From the window comes a scream, a man is being robbed
A child is being caught, handcuffed for a Cartier watch
Handcuffed, shackled by fatality
Prisonner of the dungeon, fate is the gaoler
The turf, the arena, we grew up with the game,
Brave gladiators, but life is tenacious, we fight the way we can.
In high towers
Incomprehension, bands of kids with so called bad manners
Frictions, excitation, civilian patrols
Useless fear, stupid myths and legends
Hash by the kilo, poets armed with biros
Reserves of creativity, hangars, silos
We dash to block 20 with a pack of Heineken
Hitting on a big spliff to forget
African princesses, teenage moms, plastic bags
Filled with glue, out of touch blokes, lunatics
Parallel economy, team solid as a rock
Little Dons controlling their spot tightly
We pop up the bubbly, pressed together like in Mexico
Concrete skylines, pickpockets, druggies
Honest people ignored, supercops, zorros
Politicians and journalists visiting the zoo.
Respectful muslims, humble family men
Speakers blasting music from the jungle
Devastated lobbies, shells of torn down rides
Swarms of kids coming to beg
Orange lights flaring, smoking chimneys
Impromptu soccer games on the tarmac
Golf, VR6, screeching tyres
Silence broken by the police sirens
"Façonnable" polo shirts, lousy tracksuits
Mothers with admirable character traits
Bogus hash, jail stories
Stupid divides, piles of embers.
Eastern cliches, spicy food
Cute tree names for towers in the cement forest6
Midday desert, scorching sun
Nightlife during the month of Ramadan7
No distractions, create a bit of action
Games of dice, of cards, gambling, fatal attraction
Non-stop laughs, surprise arrests
Corrupted district mayors.
Walking on used needles, dreams of traveling
Car radios on sale, batches of torn off stereos
Blokes without a B plan, merciless psychos
Best friendships a man can ever build.
Sport prodigies training on waste grounds
New jokes, terrible pick up lines
Individualities cracking up because of stress
No one makes a move, no one will get hurt.
Fumes of ether, of solvents, of alcohol
Brink's trucks eyed like the jackpot
It's not funny, the dog bites when locked in a cage
Drools of rage, the bars climb up to the second floor.
Deal in hash, it's wiser if you want to take the girl out
If you fall, shut it, no drama
But school ain't far, troubles either
It starts with spankings and ends up in custody.
Look at the street, what changes ? only seasons.
You dribble concrete, spit concrete, shit concrete
You fight for nickel, what does that yield ?
Don't regret the cash when cops come knocking at your door.
Three colors on billboards8 are treating us like trash.
It's not Manilla, ok, but cigarettes turn into spliffs.
Innocent culprit, we talk cash, percentage.
Eye for an eye, mouth for a tooth, its stressful.
Early on, its already family out there, Kader's gang9,
"Motherfucker !" still in diapers, their mouths already dirty
Not easy to talk about love, factory work,
Pretty birds breaking their backs in kitchens.
Councilmen keep hammering 'bout renovation, it's comforting
But it's still the same shit under the fresh layer of paint.
Our late dreams lie buried in the courtyard
At twelve, drive, die, end up like Tupac Shakur.10
Looking at pictures, we're adults now buddy
Quite a few friends died already in bike crashes
You win once, lose a thousand times, future is a lottery
For this, I dedicate my lyrics as votive offerings, man.
Here you're judged on your tough reputation
Fail once, and everyday they'll piss on your doorstep.
It's the minimum rate, and be careful
The heavyweights turn the area into a stronghold.
Frozen, the air becomes electric, there's plenty of seats
Congealed concrete in lieu of ice field
Kids want out of this, but noes fall like hammers
While shitty artists are leeching state grants.
So much energy lost on undue harm
The paymasters have so much shit in their eyes
Meanwhile, hopes fizzle, screw up, some are rapping
Rocks fly, stolen cars slide out of control
It's chaos in high school, in the halls extinguishers are emptied11
The neighbourhood becomes a hunting ground for detectives
Backs have eyes 'cause the waters are ridden with reefs
Reap the wheat, we roll dices in a dark coffin.
It's too much, buddies shit all over the the Romeo type
A good hit, tweak the wires, and go for a rodeo.12
Life is hard, and if we want a little fantasy
They cut hash with rubber and sell it to you for a tenner
You may say "that's ok, it's not a lot"
But for some schwag, when you got nothing, a Hamilton13 that's steep.
I know what I'm talking about, I, the bastard
Who had to celebrate his twenties with 3 cans of cheap beer.14
The place is boiling tonight, who's the king ?
Right away, walls are reserved like parking spots.
But who can understand, when they have everything,
That a man at his wit's end strikes hard, fuelled by hatred,
And that we are not born and programmed to make some fuss.
I don't think about tomorrow cause tomorrow is far away.
- 1. Hidden wordplay. In French, "la fin" (the end) and "la faim" (the hunger) are homonyms. When you hear it in the song, the line is "the end justifies the means" but when you read the lyrics, it reveals to be "The hunger justifies the means"
- 2. Originally "drawer" in French, which can be slang for pocket and for a confined place, a prison
- 3. Originally "blow a fuse". in French, fuse is called a "plomb" which means "lead" because of the metal making the wire inside the fuse. The word plomb is then used in the next 2 lines as "some have lead in their brains", a French expression meaning being smart, and then as a slang word for bullets.
- 4. Pieces of the ceramic/porcelain coating of spark plugs can be used to cut car windows before breaking them clean, just like you would with a diamond
- 5. Originally "Satan holds us with his fork (fourche)" which turns into the verb "enfourcher" which means to fork as well as to mount/ride
- 6. It's common in France for blocks of flats in suburbs to be named after trees and flowers
- 7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan
- 8. A reference to the three colors of the French flag, which are also used by the far right party "front national" on its flame shaped logo. Here the artist alludes to the party's xenophobic propaganda on their posters
- 9. Reference to Baader's gang, a famous East German terrorist group that made the headlines in the 70s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Baader
Kader is a north African first name, since a lot of the French ghettos population are of north African origin - 10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupac_Shakur
- 11. Reference to another song of the band : "Petit Frère"
- 12. Get a strong hit of weed, tweak the wires of a stolen car and go for a rodeo ride with it
- 13. "Hamidou" is a north African first name, but the meaning of it here is quite obscure, as it seems to refer to the sum of money mentioned in the previous line ("ramsellef" is Algerian slang for 5000. 5000 centimes = 50 francs = ±8 dollars). I finally decided to translate it with "Hamilton" as a reference to Alexander Hamilton appearing on the 10 dollar bill. The fact that it sounds a bit similar and that calling money notes by the name of the persons pictured on it was a thing in France before the euro(a Pascal = 500 francs for example) comforted me in this choice.
- 14. Originally : "Valstar", a very bad and cheap brand of beer
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Postat de 
max2croix la 2016-11-04
max2croix la 2016-11-04Adaugat ca răspuns la cererea 
Dimitris Ekpliktos
Dimitris Ekpliktos Ultima oară editat de max2croix în data 2023-12-03
max2croix în data 2023-12-03✕
Te rugăm să ajuți la traducerea cântecului „Demain c'est loin”
IAM: Top 3
| 1. | Le Mia |
| 2. | Demain c'est loin |
| 3. | Petit frère |
Idioms from "Demain c'est loin"
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Russia is waging a disgraceful war on Ukraine. Stai cu Ucraina!
Despre traducător
I did my best to make it intelligible, but it's not always easy because of wordplays hard or impossible to transcribe, references to French subjects/culture or even more specific of the Marseille area (that myself didnt even know, I had to look them up), and slang from the ghettos, possibly outdated too. Sometimes im not really sure what they mean.