Le mauvais sujet repenti [English translation]

She had a well turned figure1,

full hips,

and hunted for men around

the Madeleine2

From the way she said "Dearie3,

do you fancy me?"

I saw that I was faced with

a novice...

She had the gift, that's true, I see that,

she had the idea

but without skill a gift is nothing

but a filthy habit...

sure, one doesn't become a hooker

the same way as one becomes a nun,

at least that's what they preach, in Latin,

at the Sorbonne4...

Feeling filled with pity

for the loose girl,

I taught her the litle

tricks of her trade...

I taught her the way to quickly

make her fortune

by moving the place where her back

looked like a moon...

For in the art of street-walking.

I admit,

the hard thing is to correctly understand

how to play the buttocks...

One doesn't wiggle one's bum

the same way

for the owner of a hardware store,

a sexton, and a civil servant...

Quickly instructed by

my good offices,

she vested me with a share

of her takings...

We helped each other mutually,

as the poet says,

she was the body, of course,

and I the brain5...

One evening, after some

doubtful goings on,

she fell victim to a

shameful illness...

then, with the most friendly intentions,

as a proper young lady,

she passed me half of her microbes.

After some painful injections

of antiseptics

I gave up the rôle of systematic

cuckold...

It didn't matter how much she sobbed and cried,

how much she howled6 at the top of her voice

as I was nothing but a bastard,

I became a decent man...

As soon as she'd lost my supervision

my poor friend

sped off to experience the brothel's

shameful practises...

Apparently she even sells herself to cops,

such decadence!

There's no public morality

in our France any more...

1. lit:waist turned on a lathe2. La Madeleine is a quartier asdministratif in the 8th Arrondissement of Paris. It get in's name from L''Eglise de la Madeleine (St Mary Magdalene's Church). The church is on the site of a synagogue siezed in 1182 by Philip II and consecrated as a church dedicated to Mary Magdalen. Over the next 747 years the building had a somewhat chaotic history: much attempted rebuilding (little success); fell down at least once; was rented to a wine-merchant as his place of business by the National Assembly set up by the revolution towards the end of the 18th century; planned by Napoleon to be a temple of Glory to the French Armies, but he changed his mind and decided it would be just an ordinary church after the Armies' glory had been somewhat dented by the Russian campaign of 1812; when the Bourbons were restored Louis XVIII wanted it to build it as a church dedicated to the expiation of the sins (if any) of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and Elizabeth de France; after the next revolution (1830) Louis Philippe first planned for it to become a railway station (anything to put down the senior branch of the Bourbons) but then decided it should instead become a simple parish church. The architects and stonemasons had different ideas, and when the bulding work was completed in 1842 it was a very impressive looking building (see

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89glise_de_la_Madeleine#/media/File:%C... and https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89glise_de_la_Madeleine#/media/File:La... )

It was re-consecrated in 1845.

But it was in pretty bad condition by 1992, needing substantial repair just 150 years after the building work was completed in 1842. The police formally declared it a hazard to safety in 2011. It's estimated that it will cost more that €80Million to repair it... 3. "My rat" is a slang term of endearment4. a university in Paris5. lit: head6. lit: brayed

• Artist:Georges Brassens
• Album:Les sabots d'Hélène