La marine [English translation]

They are found, in miniature,

in our brief one day love affairs

all the joys. all the pains

of love affairs that last for ever.

That’s the fate of us navy men1

and of all our young girls.

We come to shore. Quick! a mouth

for our kisses, a body too.

And the joys and the sulks,

the quarrels, and makings up

of big love affairs, they’re all there

in miniature in our little ones.

We laughed, we kissed each-other,

on the eyelids, on the tits,

in the hair lots of snogging

dropped like warm new-laid eggs.

All we do in just one day!

and how we spin the time out !

More than three times, in just one day,

content, not content, content.

And in the room a scent

of tender love and of tar.

It fills your heart with joy,

with pain as well, and that’s good.

We’re not there to talk…

but we think, even while making love.

We think that tomorrow will dawn

and that that’s a calamity.

That’s the fate of us navy men

and of all our young darlingss.

We land. But we realise

that it won’t be paradise.

It won’t do any good to hurry,

to try, good heavens, to defeat time

and pack it full of all our sins,

that can’t be, and yet

all the joys, all the pains

of everlasting love affairs,

we find them, in miniature,

in out little one day affairs...

1. la marine: the navy (national or merchant) OR the navy's sailors - here it's the sailors