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"