Dans la rue des Blancs-Manteaux [English translation]

In the rue des Blancs-Manteaux1

they raised up a stage2

and put some bran3 in a bucket,

and it was a scaffold

in the rue des Blancs-Manteaux.

In the rue des Blancs-Manteaux

the executioner got up early

that was because he had a job to do,

he had to chop some generals,

some bishops, some admirals

in the rue des Blancs-Manteaux.

In the rue des Blancs-Manteaux

some respectable women have come

wearing lovely trinkets

but their heads were missing4

they rolled from their high position,

each head with its hat still on

in the gutter of Blancs-Manteaux.

1. La rue des Blancs-Manteaux (the street of the white habits) is a street about a third of a km long in Paris (4th arrondissement) which acquired that name because the monks of order of the service of Mary, who had a monastery there for about 16 years in the middle of the 13th century, wore white habits, and after the monastery was taken over by the monks of the order of Saint William who wore black habits they too were called "white habits" despite their black dress; until the order of St William had been there for 20 years or so the street continued to be called "rue de la Parcheminerie" (parchment making street), but somewhere around the end of the 13th century the street came to be called "street of the White Habits"2. literally: some trestles; but the plural often means the stage (cf "the boards" in theatre jargon in English)3. at the time of the French revolution ground grain husks were more easily obtainable than sawdust4. this line and the next are a typical case where French uses the singular (because however many people thare are they still only have one head each) but English uses the plural (because lots of people have more than one head between them) ; the line after that still uses the singular without "each" ("chacune" in French isn't needed) but although English could use the plural I think it's a much more natural translation to use "each" and "its" and the singular there

• Artist:Juliette Gréco