La légende de la nonne [English translation]

Come, you whose eye sparkles,

to hear another story.

Come closer: I'll tell you the one

About Doña Padilla del Flor.

She was from Alanje, where there are heaps

of hills and bushes.

- Children, Here some oxen are going by,

Hide your red pinafores1.

There are girls in Granada,

And in Seville as well,

Who, for the least serenade,

Ask love for mercy;

There are some who sometimes are embraced

In the evening by bold cavalrymen.

- Children, Here some oxen are going by,

Hide your red pinafores.

It is not in this frivilous manner

Than one should talk of de Padilla,

For never did a Spanish eye2

shine with a more chaste light;

She fled from those who chase

The girls under the poplars.

- Children, Here some oxen are going by,

Hide your red pinafores.

She took the veil at Toledo

To a great sigh from the people of that place,

As if, when one is not ugly,

One has the right to wed God.

It was almost enough to bring to tears

the loutish soldiers and the students.

- Children, Here some oxen are going by,

Hide your red pinafores.

Now, when the beauty was only just cloistered,

Love was installed in her heart.

A proud bandit of the area

Came then and said "Here I am!"

Sometimes bandits outdo

Cavalrymen in boldness.

- Children, Here some oxen are going by,

Hide your red pinafores.

He was ugly: stern features,

His hand rougher than his glove;

But love has many misteries

And the nun loved the bandit.

One sees some does replace

their handsome deer with wild boars

- Children, Here some oxen are going by,

Hide your red pinafores.

The nun dared, according to the chronicler,

to arrange with the brigand led on by hell

a night-time rendezvous

at the feet of Saint Veronica,

at the time when the crows caw loudly

thousands of them flying in the dark.3

- Children, Here some oxen are going by,

Hide your red pinafores.

So, when having gone down into the nave

The nun called out to the bandit

Instead of the expected voice

It was lightning that replied.

God willed that his blows should strike

The lovers whom Satan had joined together.

- Children, Here some oxen are going by,

Hide your red pinafores.

This story about the novice, -

Saint Ildefonse, the abbot, wanted,

In order to protect from vice

The virgins who seek salvation

That the prioresses should tell it

In all ordinary convents.

- Children, Here some oxen are going by,

Hide your red pinafores.

1. or "aprons"2. literally: "pupil"3. Anyone who thinks this site's strictures about automatic translation are exaggerated should perhaps try running this sentence through some of those translators on the web and looking at the gibberish that comes out. Or just look up Professor Hoare's comments on the topic.

• Artist:Georges Brassens