Celui qui a mal tourné [English translation]

It had been ages and ages

since I'd made use of my teeth1,

or put any wine in my water2

or any coal in my stove.3

All the undertakers, covertly,

had their rapacious eyes on me already:

My last hour was going to sound

that's when I went astray.

Not to beat around the bush4,

At a stroke I clobbered 5,

with an excessively strong blow with a log

a night-time merry-maker with masses of money.

The furry cats6, when they learnt of this

came down on me pretty hard7,

and sent me down to Santé prison8

to make me back into an honest man.

Thingummy, Whosit, so and so, Mrs so and so,

every ordinary sort of person,

were of the opinion that, with true justice

I should have been hung

from a lamp post9 on the spot.

They saw themselves already cutting up to share,

fairly and unreservedly, the rope I was hung with

each piece a token of good luck.10.

Many years later11 they threw me

out of the door of the santé prison.

As I'm a sentimental type,

I go back to the district where I was born,

keeping my head down, staying close to the walls,

with trembling knees12

expecting to see any human beings

turn away from my path.13.

There's one of them who said "Hello!

Seeing you again, we weren't counting on that..."

There's one who asked me

how I was14

Then, I realised that there were still people,

and lovely people, remaining on earth,

and I put my backside on the ground

and cried my eyes out15.

1. hadn't eaten for a long time2. couldn't afford any wine3. couldn't afford fuel4. not to go by four ways5. "estourbis" is definitely "beating around the bush" - it isn't clear that the victim was killed until the end of the next line6. judges in ermine7. literally: put their paws on top of me8. prison in Paris, entrance on Rue de la Santé about 100 metres south of Boulevard Arago; the Paris Marriot Rive Gauche less than 5 minutes walk away on Bolevard St Jacques reputedly provides more comfortable accomodation9. in the early days of the French revolution "À la lanterne!" was a cry that meant "String him up"; here it just means "from a lamp post" but is obviously a reference to that revolutionary cry10. a piece of a hangmans used rope was regarded as lucky in France11. lit:"At the end of a century"12. literally "Ill at ease on my femurs"'I guess Brassens employs this weird phrase for startling effect (it's maybe accurate anatomically - I don't actually know whether it is or not, but the trembling could be movement of the condyles of the femur against the meniscuses of the knee-joint and I have the impression that Brassens liked getting things like this right and using them to startle people)13. To me the use of "les" rather than "des" means that he thinks his crime has banished him from the human race14. literally: "asked me for news about my health", and of course the word "santé" meaning health is the same word as "Santé", the name of the prison he's just been released from, so when you hear it you dont know which is intended - news about his prison or about his health15. literally: "cried all the tears of my body"

• Artist:Georges Brassens