| Ce soir trangement, le chapiteau repose.
| Strangely tonight, the marquee rests.
|
| La mort a fait main basse sur le rire des enfants.
| Death has taken over the children's laughter.
|
| Le clown s’en est all et la lune rpand
| The clown is gone and the moon is pouring out
|
| Sur son lit les onguents de la mtamorphose.
| On his bed the ointments of metamorphosis.
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| La fanfare afflige et l’cuyre en pleurs,
| The brass band afflicts and the squire in tears,
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| Les petits poneys blancs aux toupets de velours
| Little white ponies with velvet forelocks
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| L’escorteront demain grands coups de tambours
| Will escort him tomorrow great drumbeats
|
| Sur la butte escarpe o sera sa demeure.
| On the steep knoll where his home will be.
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| Lui, drap dans l’azur, ira dire aux plantes
| Him, draped in the blue, will tell the plants
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| Naissantes et toutes pleines de vie dcanter,
| Nascent and all full of life decant,
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| Le secret lourd et bleu des rires dsenchants
| The heavy blue secret of disenchanted laughter
|
| Qui sonnent en mineur les flonflons de la fte.
| Which sound in minor the blare of the party.
|
| Dans un cirque toil tendu de nues blondes,
| In a circus stretched canvas of blonde nudes,
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| Pour des soleils enfants aux rires incandescents,
| For childish suns of incandescent laughter,
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| Le clown fera revivre, ridicule et savant,
| The clown will revive, ridiculous and learned,
|
| Les rires o sont caches les dtresses du monde.
| The laughter where the troubles of the world are hidden.
|
| Le rire du vieillard prs de l’arbre palabres,
| The laughter of the old man near the palaver tree,
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| Cassant comme un regret sous le poids d’un jour neuf.
| Brittle like regret under the weight of a new day.
|
| Le rire du coolie reint comme un boeuf
| The coolie's laugh runs like an ox
|
| Ou le rire du fou, afft comme un sabre.
| Or the madman's laughter, sharp as a sword.
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| Saltimbanque des rires qu’une larme enchevtre
| Mountebank of laughter that a tear entangles
|
| Il jonglera si bien, le clown, que l’infini
| He will juggle so well, the clown, that infinity
|
| Refera le calcul de ses cosmogonies
| Will redo the calculation of his cosmogonies
|
| Pour renouer les fils de ses pantins terrestres.
| To retie the threads of his earthly puppets.
|
| Mais il taira le pire, le rire impardonnable,
| But he will silence the worst, the unforgivable laughter,
|
| Ce triste rire d’enfant si las que dj vieux,
| This sad child's laughter so tired that already old,
|
| Pour qui le clown ira botter le cul des dieux
| For whom the clown will kick the ass of the gods
|
| O qu’ils soient, dans leurs Olympes improbables.
| Wherever they are, in their improbable Olympus.
|
| Ce soir trangement, le chapiteau repose. | Strangely tonight, the marquee rests. |