Paris Canaille [English translation]

Paris pimp

With girl’s eyes

Shifty looks

And old rags

Accordions

Bawling out

Won’t raise cash

Still it’s good

Gigolos

Undress you

In Bastille

Underpass

To get drunk

On your skirts

Make you scream

Still it’s good

Lilas grass

Pantin blooms

Can’t count all

Passes made

Shock in all

Four seasons

Brings in cash

Still it’s good

Since Dédé

And Bébert

Have been flush

Ladies feel

They’ve a right

To two-time

Still it’s good

Paris thug

Hands which slip

Make no friends

With the cops

Buttonholed

In neon

No angel

Still it’s good

Smart hold-ups

For the press

Front-wheel drive

Get-aways

A sharp tap

Just in time

Shekels stacked

Or else you’re good

Here’s to one

Here’s to two

For three bucks

I’ll see you

In the late

Editions

You’re in stir

Still it’s good

Here’s to last

Or nothing

You run with

Cut-price mobs

Best act smart

To get on

Still next time

May be good

Paris I’ve drunk

With raucous voice

Along the streets

You vocalize

There’s no more hope

In your patched clothes

Just the pavement

But it’s so good

But bridges span

The flowing Seine

For some romance

Illusion made

It’s rush hour now

But still so good

Abandoned kids

In neighbourhoods

Of meadows paved

Which make love grow

It also grows

In house and home

We have done wrong

Still it’s so good

Misty-eyed looks

Plunge in the stream

Which cleans the street

On which it sails

A boat that rocks

The lower berths

It makes hard work

Still it’s so good

Paris I keep

In heart of stone

A running count

Of fancy ways

A hat that’s tipped

When right to do

But when needs must

Still it’s so good

Gilt-edged firms

Anonymous

Honourable friend

Of high renown

A fashion plate

Of the rag-trade

Not kissing hands

Still it’s so good

Give me some change

And flash the cash

A nice discount

And gentleman

A fat chequebook

The bouncing type

What can you do?

Still it’s so good

In the Faubourg

Saint-Honoré

We take high tea

And then I’m off

One party gone

One party stayed

That’s a surprise

Still it’s so good

Oompah Paris

Your festive soul

Has got millions

For your poets

Just a few pence

For my old song

That rhymes with ‘cents’

And it’s so good