Heureux qui meurt ici
Ainsi
Que les oiseaux des champs!
Son corps près des amis
Est mis
Dans l'herbe et dans les chants.
Il dort d'un bon sommeil
Vermeil,
Sous le ciel radieux.
Tous ceux qu'il a connus,
Venus,
Lui font de longs adieux.
A sa croix les parents
Pleurants
Restent agenouillés;
Et ses os, sous les fleurs,
De pleurs
Sont doucement mouillés.
Chacun sur le bois noir
Peut voir
S'il était jeune ou non,
Et peut avec de vrais
Regrets
L'appeler par son nom.
Combien plus malchanceux
Sont ceux
Qui meurent la mé,
Et sous le flot profond
S'en vont
Loin du pays aimé!
Ah! pauvres, qui pour seuls
Linceuls
Ont les goémons verts
Où l'on roule inconnu,
Tout nu,
Et les yeux grands ouverts.
Heureux qui meurt ici
Ainsi
Que les oiseaux des champs!
Son corps près des amis
Est mis
Dans l'herbe et dans les chants.
Happy the one who dies here
like
the birds of the fields!
His body close to his friends
is placed
in the grass and among the songs.
He sleeps a good vermilion
sleep,
beneath the radiant sky.
All those whom he knew,
having come,
bid him long farewells.
At his cross his relatives,
weeping,
stay on their knees;
and his bones, beneath the flowers,
with tears
are gently watered.
Everyone, on the black wood,
may see
whether he was young or not,
and may, with genuine
regrets,
call him by his name.
How much more unfortunate
are those
who die at sea,
and, beneath the deep water,
depart
far from the beloved country!
Ah! Poor fellows, who, for their only
shrouds,
have the green seaweeds,
where one rolls unknown,
naked,
and with eyes wide open.
Happy the one who dies here
like
the birds of the fields!
His body close to his friends
is placed
in the grass and among the songs.
© translated by Christopher Goldsack
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