I started, and indeed finished this translation back in April. I can’t remember why I choose not to publish it, perhaps I was not entirely happy with the translation, but reading it back I think it’s pretty good. Perhaps my standards are dropping.
Pep’s is another band that easily makes my top ten French language bands and for a period several months ago I was all over their album Utopies Dans Le Décor – I think the production quality (if you’ll allow me to use such as boring phrase) is superb – the mixture of the clean guitar sound and the rich bass really gets me.
I haven’t played the album for at least six months – it’s one of those that I loved but that I overplayed – like drinking a few too many glasses of whiskey – sometimes you don’t realise you’ve overdone it until it’s too late. Sometimes this can be terminal (I still can’t listen to Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers due to playing it into the ground on its release) – but I am happy to report that Pep’s are playing in the background as I write this and I’m loving it.
I have no little MP3 widget to include in this post, and embedding is disabled for the official video on YouTube, but I can give you this link to the YouTube video.
| Enlancer | To embrace |
A ta main et la mienne, violente, douce enlacées | |
To your hand and mine, passionate, soft embraces | |
| écorché | To skin; to graze; to mispronounce |
Une fois de plus écœuré, écorché de ce monde entier | |
Once more disgusted, ripped apart from the whole world | |
| écoeurer | To make feel sick; to sicken |
Une fois de plus écoeuré, écorché de ce monde entier | |
Once more disgusted, ripped apart from the whole world | |
| Sucrer | To sweeten |
Se transforme en radeau et nous sucre nos cris | |
It changes into a raft and we sweeten our cries | |
| Mitrailler | To machine gun; to fire questions |
A cracher sur la mitraille et couvrir le son par un banjo | |
To spit on a hail of bullets and cover the sound with a banjo | |
| Le/La môme | Kid |
Aux yeux tout ronds d’un môme qui brillent, à cet instantané | |
To the big round eyes of a kid who shines, to that moment | |
| Un radeau | Raft |
Se transforme en radeau et nous sucre nos cris | |
It changes into a raft and we sweeten our cries | |
| D'antan | Of yesteryear |
Mais où sont passés ces rêves, nos rêves d’enfants qui volaient en glaçons, sur nos volcans d’antan | |
But what happened to these dreams, our childish dreams, which flew on ice, over our volcanoes of yesteryear | |
Mélodie - Pep's | Melody (translation of Mélodie by Pep's) |
| Et pour un peu plus d’esprit | And for a little more spirit | |
| Pour toi mélodie | A tune for you | |
| A la douceur et les fleurs de nos jeunes années | To the softness and the flowers of our youth | |
| Aux yeux tout ronds d’un môme qui brillent, à cet instantané | To the big round eyes of a kid who shines, to that moment | |
| A ta main et la mienne, violente, douce enlacées | To your hand and mine, passionate, soft embraces | |
| Dans les doutes et les pleurs, aux creux des joies entraînées | In the doubts and the tears, the hollow, forced joys | |
| Et ça va, ça vient, je te reviens dévasté | And it comes and goes, I come back to you devasted, | |
| Une fois de plus écoeuré, écorché de ce monde entier | Once more disgusted, ripped apart from the whole world | |
| Et pour un peu plus d’esprit | And for a little more spirit | |
| Pour toi mélodie | A tune for you | |
| Mais où sont passés ces rêves, nos rêves d’enfants | But what happened to these dreams, our childish dreams, | |
| Qui volaient en glaçons, sur nos volcans d’antan | Which flew on ice, over volcanoes of yesteryear, | |
| Sans perdre une seule goutte de leur innocence | Without losing a single drop of their innocence, | |
| Sans se perdre en doute pour de futiles souffrances | Without getting lost questioning the futile sufferings | |
| Une route | A route | |
| Non des chemins, des doutes, | No paths, doubts, | |
| Des doutes mon ami, | Doubts, my friend | |
| Pour les forces de demain | For the forces of tomorrow | |
| Et pour un peu plus d’esprit, | And for a little more spirit | |
| Pour toi mélodie | A tune for you | |
| Aux couleurs de l’espoir | With the colours of hope, | |
| Aux couleurs de la vie | With the colours of life, | |
| A la douceur de ton regard | With the softness of your glance, | |
| A toi qui me lis | With you who reads me, | |
| Aux couleurs de l’espoir | With the colours of hope, | |
| Aux couleurs de la vie | With the colours of life | |
| Et pour un peu plus d’esprit, | And for a little more spirit | |
| Pour toi mélodie | A tune for you | |
| Ce n’est encore que des mots, | It’s still just words, | |
| Je n’ai pas trouvé mieux | I've not found better, | |
| Ce n’est encore qu’un cri | It’s still just a cry | |
| Dans un stade bien rempli | In a crowded stadium. | |
| Peut-être qu’une goutte d’eau | Maybe just a drop of water | |
| Dans la mer en folie | In a sea of madness, | |
| Mais il arrive qu’un jour | But it becomes one day | |
| Oui la mer pour la vie | Yes, the sea of life | |
| Se transforme en radeau | It changes into a raft | |
| Et nous sucre nos cris | And we sweeten our cries | |
| A arracher nos étoiles | To tear out our stars | |
| Pour qu’elles brillent un peu plus haut | So that they shine a little more brightly | |
| A cracher sur la mitraille et couvrir le son par un banjo | To spit on a hail of bullets and cover the sound with a banjo | |
| Il est barjo cet amiral | This admiral is crazy | |
| De ne pas sauter de son bateau | For not jumping from his boat | |
| Ils sont barjos ces amiraux | These admirals are crazy | |
| De ne pas sauter de leur bataille | For not jumping from their battle | |
| Et pour un peu plus d’esprit, | And for a little more spirit | |
| Pour toi mélodie | A tune for you |
