Jacques Prévert - La grasse matinée versuri traducere în engleză

A plentiful morning

1It is so frightful, the noise
of a hardboiled egg being shelled against a pewter counter.
That noise is so frightful
when it stirs in the memories of the hungry man.
It is frightful too, the head of the man
the head of the hungry man
when it's 6AM and he looks at his reflection
in the window of the department store.
A head the color of dust.
Still, it's not at his own head he's looking at
in the grocery's2 window.
The man does not give a damn about his head.
He doesn't think about it.
He's musing.
He pictures another head.
A calf's head3 for instance,
served with vinegar sauce,
or the head of anything edible,
and he gently works his jaw,
gently,
and he grinds his teeth gently,
because the whole world is taking the mickey4 out of him
and he can't defend against this world,
and he's counting on his fingers: one, two, three.
One, two, three,
it's been three days since he last ate.
And though he keeps saying to himself
it can't go on like this,
it does go on.
Three days,
three nights
with nothing to eat,
and behind these windows,
these patés, these bottles, these jars,
dead fishes preserved by cans,
cans sheltered by windows,
windows watched over by cops
cops protected by fear.
So many barricades for a mere half-dozen sardines...
A bit further away, the bar,
flat white and hot croissants.
The man staggers
and inside his head
a haze of words
a haze of words
sardines to eat,
hardboiled egg, flat white
coffee spiked with rhum
flat white
flat white
bled white sprinkled with blood!...
A gentleman well esteemed in his neighbourhood
had his throat slit in broad daylight.
The murderer, a tramp, robbed him
of two francs,
that is a liqueur coffee:
zero dot seventy francs,
two buttered slices of bread
and twenty five cents for the waiter's tip.
It is so frightful, the noise
of a hardboiled egg being shelled against a pewter counter.
That noise is so frightful
when it stirs in the memories of the hungry man.
 

• 1. 'grasse matinée' (lit. 'fat morning') means 'a lie-in', but here it can be understood as 'a morning with plenty to eat'
• 2. 'Félix Potin' was a popular grocery franchise
• 3. Calf head is a popular dish made of chopped and jellied calf meat, including parts of the head, usually served warm with a vinegar sauce
• 4. the French idiom uses 'head'

Do whatever you want with my translations. I'm not rich enough to sue you anyway.


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