Friday, June 15, 2007

Retour a Vega

This is a song that the Stills performed, though it was written by someone else (someone in a band they were in with? I can't remember the story). I've seen the Stills perform it in concert a bunch of times, and it was also on the Wicker Park soundtrack. Here's my attempt to translate:

Retour à Vega

ça y est c'est reparti je me divise en deux
je suis tout à la fois l'acteur et le décor
je ne sais où je vais, où je vais le saurais-je
je ne vais nulle part mais à toute vitesse

l'haleine des camions le soleil alienant
sur le toit du Bancroft building à Montréal
les filles à moitié nues je pense à toi souvent
les filles complètement nues ça me fait toujours mal

et puis je reste là les gens me semblent heureux
si tu savais souffrir je m'emporterais mieux
tu receveras ma lettre déchirante et déchirée
les larmes de non-retour de la chienne crevée




Return to Vega
That’s it; it’s started again, I’m dividing in two
I’m at once both the actor and the scenery
I don’t know where I’m going, should I know where?
I’m going nowhere, but at top speed



The breath of the trucks, the alienating sun
On the roof of the Bancroft Building in Montreal
half-naked girls, I often think of you
completely naked girls, it always makes me sick (?)/ it always hurts

And I’ll stay here, the people seem happy
If you knew suffering I would be better
You will receive my letter, heartworn and torn
The one-way tears of the “ravaged bitch.”*

*a reference to a Serge Gainsbourg song “La Noyée”: "Tu n'es plus qu'une pauvre epave,/ Chienne crevee au fil de l'eau" ["You're just a pitiful wreck now,/A ravaged bitch drifting with the flow"]

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