Gastibelza [L'homme à la carabine] [English translation]

Gastibelza1, the rifle man,

Sang this way :

"Anybody knew doña Sabine?

Anybody from here ?

Sing, dance, villagers ! The night creeps on

The mount Falu...

The wind blowing through the mountain

will drive me mad.

"Any one of you knew Sabine,

My señora ?

Her mother was the old maugrabine2

Of Antequera3,

That each night howled in the Magne tower4

Like an owl...

The wind blowing through the mountain

will drive me mad.

"Truly, the queen would have been ugly next to her

When, at nightfall,

She walked by on the bridge of Toledo

In a black corset.

A rosary from the time of Charlemagne

Adorned her neck...

The wind blowing through the mountain

will drive me mad.

The king declared, seeing her so beautiful,

To his nephew :

"For a kiss, for a smile of hers,

For a hair,

Infant don Ruy, I would give away Spain

and Peru !

The wind blowing through the mountain

will drive me mad.

"I do not know if I loved this lady,

But I do know

That, to have a look of her soul,

Me, poor dog,

I would have gladly spendt ten years in the bagne5

Under shackles...

The wind blowing through the mountain

will drive me mad.

"When I would see that child, me the sheperd

Of this county,

I believed to look a Cleopatra,

Whom, we are told,

Led Caesar, Emperor of Germania,

By the collar...

The wind blowing through the mountain

will drive me mad.

"Dance, sing, villagers, the night falls

Sabine, one day,

Sold everything, her dove beauty,

all of her love,

For the golden ring of the Count of Saldagne,

For a jewel...

The wind blowing through the mountain

drove me mad.

1. That name could be composed of two basque words, «gazte» meaning the young man, and «belz» meaning black. This would lead to the only black hero in Hugo's litterature, the slave Pierrot, AKA Bug-Jargal, tragically in love for the daughter of his master, promised to Léopold d'Auverney.2. Meaning of maur origin (maghrebi, north african)3. City located in the province of Malaga in Andalousia, Spain.4. Great tower. There is one in Nîmes (a watch tower from the roman era).5. Hard labour colonial prison.

• Artist:Georges Brassens