Half Ladies [English translation]

Hair brushed back,

collar buttoned up high.

It's not as much for show

as for hiding the scratch.

Am I ugly or pretty1?

There's no escaping this unmoving plague of a body.

Only a mood, a love and its pain that leave a mark on the skin.

I've long been wearing

doubt in front [of me], like a necklace.

Let all the Half-Ladies through.

Hair brushed back,

longing for ideals,

we bear the weariness

like peculiar prodigal childs

that would have come back too soon.

Defying the ordinary

I do it my way2

Since I don't want to be a big girl, I'll be

a little boy.

For each spit in the eye

a beauty spot blossoms3

Let all the Half-Ladies through.

Get a move on!

1. spoken in masculine2. the French barely makes sense here.

Something like "[if] I defy the ordinary, I do it my [own] way"3. though "grain de beauté" is a mole, "pousser"(grow) and "grain"(seed) can evoke a seed of beauty growing from each insult