À l'ombre du cœur de ma mie [English translation]

In the shade of my dear one's heart

A bird1 had gone to sleep

One day when the was pretending

to be Sleeping Beauty2.

And I, kneeling down

- Good fairies, keep us safe! -

wanted to place on this heart

a sort of kiss3.

Then that odd person of ill omen

started shouting "Stop thief!

Stop thief!" and "Murderer!"

As if I was going at his breast.

At the calls of this starling4,

utter chaos ensues,

everyone and his dog5 rushes up

straight away to bring him help.

So much hubub and rumbling riot

frightened all the charm away,

and the beauty, disillusioned,

shut her heart to my kiss.

And it's since that time, my sister

that I became a hunter,

that, crossbow in my hand,

I go through the woods and the paths.

1. literally: "a bird"; but in 1950s slang it meant "an odd person"2. literally: "The Beauty sleeping in the Wood" which was the what the fairy tale girl was called in an early French version of the fairy tale - much earlier than any surviving German or English version3. or do rather more than kiss her4. literally "starling", continuing the "bird" theme with another slang meaning: a silly thoughtless person5. literally "everyone and his father"