Les joyeux bouchers [English translation]

This is the tango of La Villette1 butchers

This is the tango of the slaughterhouse killers

Come and get caul fat and bone marrow2

and drink blood before it turns pitch black.

Let it bleed

Let people get their grub

Let the fatties stuff themselves

Let the skinny put on fat

Let it bleed

Let the meat brokers3

gorge themselves on

unaffordable4 beef fillet

Let it bleed

Let the hides get tanned

Let the feet get breaded

Let the heads end up in marinade

Let it bleed

Let's swallow cheap meat

to become a fat corpse

and feed hefty worms

Let it bleed

heartily

This is the tango of the merry military

of the joyful victors from everywhere and elsewhere

This is the tango of the famous warmongers

This is the tango of all the gravediggers

Let it bleed

Give the bayonet a shove,

ram it through or break it trying

or you'll get a good what-for

Let it bleed

Clobber a couple of them,

no matter if they're your cousins

Squeeze the juice out of them

Let it bleed

If you can't do them in

your pals will lend a hand

and you'll soon croak

Let it bleed

Tomorrow it will be your turn

Tomorrow it will be your day

Done with you, done with love

Tiens ! Voilà du boudin !....5

1. the place where the "cité des sciences" stands in the north of Paris housed a huge complex of slaughterhouses in the 50's2. the French names can be understood as "strawberry" and "passing romance"3. the French adds "in Les Halles", a now gone huge market in the center of Paris4. lit. "800 francs/kilogram"5. that's the start of the French Foreign Legion marching song:

"Here, have some blood sausage, have some blood sausage..."