La complainte du progrès... The lament of progress.
Here is a first draft of this famous song of Vian. I'll try better when I have more time.
The text in french can be read here,
Before, to
court a woman,
One talked about love
To better
prove one’s heat
One offered
one’s heart
But
nowadays it’s not the same
Things change, things change
And to
tempt the dear angel
One whispers to his ear
Ha, Gudule,
come and kiss me, and I’ll give you…
A refrigerator,
a pretty scooter, an atomixer
And some Dunlopillo
A gas cooker,
a glass oven
Heaps of
flatware and cake slices
A vinaigrette sprinkler
A nice ventilator
to stuff fugs
Heating sheets
A waffle gun
A plane for two
An we will
be happy !
Before, when one came to fight
With one’s love
One would leave in mournful mood
Leaving
behind the crockery
But now,
you see
Life is so
expensive
One says ‘go
back to your mum’s’
And keeps
for one’s the whole stuff.
Ha Gudule,
apologize, or I’ll take all this back…
My refrigerator, my spoon cupboard
My iron
sink, my oil heater
My shoe waxer and my slug ironer
My
mirror-stool and my rascal-hunter
The vinaigrette sprinkler
The rubbish
shriveler and the fried food cutter.
And if the girl
remains rebel
One throws
her out and leaves her to
The refrigerator, the dust cleaner
To the cooker
and the ever-done bed
The shoe-heater,
the potato-canon
The tomato-ripper,
to the chicken skinner !
But very
fast one receives the visit
Of a tender
lover who’s offering her heart
So one goes
soft, anyway,
One has to
help one another
And lovers live this way
Until next time they fight.
/https%3A%2F%2Fassets.over-blog.com%2Ft%2Fcedistic%2Fcamera.png)