Une jolie fleur [English translation]

Never throughout the ages has there been in the world

A lover blinder than me,

But I have to say that I poked my own eyes

While looking at her bust from too close.

[Chorus]:

A pretty flower in a cow skin1,

A pretty cow disguised as a flower

Who plays the beauty and hooks you

And then leads you on by your heartstrings2

Providence had provided her with thousands of charms

Which set you alight as soon as you contact them

She had so many of them that I didn't know,

No longer knew where to give some mouth3

[Chorus]

She was pretty thick, she didn't have

Much more than a thimbleful of brains

But for love-making one doesn't require

Girls to have much intelligence

[Chorus]

Then one day she slung her hook4

Leaving a dreadful hurt to my soul

And all the Saint John's wort in the world5

was unable to cure me of that pain6

I was really mad at her, but now

I've no more hard feelings and my heart forgives her

For having put my heart to fire and the sword7

So that it could be no use to anyone any more.

[Chorus]

1. "peau de vache" is a pejorative phrase for a person, "scumbag" would be a reasonable translation; but I've used the literal translation "cow skin" so that it matches "cow" on he next line - after all, "cow" in English when applied to a woman is adequately pejorative so it's good on the next line2. "by the end of your heart" in French, but that isn't English idiom3. kiss, lick, suck, love-bite ...4. literally: "took the key to the fields"5. Sometimes "les herbes de Saint-Jean" can suggest vengeance, rather than the herb, but that wouldn't really fit here so it must be the herb6. lit: "plague"7. "to fire and to blood", but that's not English; the phrase is used for what an army turned mob does to a town - and "put to fire and the sword" seems to me better than "sacked" when applied to a heart.

• Artist:Georges Brassens