Les
Cloches

Guillaume Apollinaire
Mon beau tzigane mon amant
Écoute les cloches qui sonnent
Nous nous aimions éperdument
Croyant n'être vus de personne

Mais nous étions bien mal cachés
Toutes les cloches à la ronde
Nous ont vus du haut des clochers
Et le disent à tout le monde

Demain Cyprien et Henri
Marie Ursule et Catherine
La boulangère et son mari
Et puis Gertrude ma cousine

Souriront quand je passerai
Je ne saurai plus où me mettre
Tu seras loin je pleurerai
          J'en mourrai peutêtre

Churchbells
X. J. Kennedy,
Translator
Gypsy tall dark my lover
Listen the churchbells sound
We loved each other and got lost
Not dreaming we'd be found

But we were badly covered up
Now every bell has spied
Our secret from its steepletop
And spilled it village wide

Tomorrow Cyrien and Henri
Catherine and Marie Ursule
The baker's wife the baker
And Cousin Gertrude all

Will smile at me when I walk by
I won't know where to lay me
You'll be far from my side I'll cry
          And that will kill me maybe

--- From In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus
© 2007, Johns Hopkins University Press
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