A great black sun hangs over the valley
Mute chimneys, locked portals
Still carts, abandoned towers.
No more orange flame in the rainy sky.
At night they look like ancient castles
eaten away by brambles, frost and death.
A great icy wind makes you grind your teeth,
a drifting monster of metal.
I'd like to keep working, keep working,
shaping red steel with my golden hands.
Keep working, keep working,
red steel and golden hands
I spent my life there, in this rolling mill
My lungs, my blood, my rage
Overcast horizons there, very rare sunlight
like a red trench, a bleeding channel1 to hope
~~~
In the evening they look like warships
battered by waves, eroded by sea,
beached on their sides, smacked by tides,
vanquished by gold2, the steel monsters.
I'd like to keep working, keep working,
shaping red steel with my golden hands.
Keep working, keep working,
red steel and golden hands
I can no longer exist there
I can no longer live there
I've become completely useless
There's nothing left to do.
And when I do nothing
I'm less expensive
than when I used to work,
or so the experts say.
I worked myself to death
for peanuts.
I must be ranting
or going crazy.
I can no longer exist there
I can no longer live there
I've become completely useless
There's nothing left to do.
I'd like to keep working, keep working,
shaping red steel with my golden hands.
Keep working, keep working,
red steel and golden hands... (bis)
1. "saignée" can mean both "bleeding" and "channel", and I think both meanings are relevant here2. "argent" can mean both "silver" and "money"