L’ÉVEIL DU PRINTEMPS: SCENE 2 PART 4
CHANSON: « UNE PUTAIN DE VIE »
MORITZ: Je fais toujours le rêve étrange
Que derrière le mur [épais]
Je puisse parler à un ange
En latin ou en français
— Sortez-moi d’ici! J’en peux plus
Je voudrais me réveiller
— Approche-toi, petit, me dit elle,
La sortie, [c’est d’ce côté] !
Elle dit, donne-moi ta main
Et ta peine si tu le veux
Dis-moi tout ce qui te dérange
Et te rend tout malheureux
Et comme un fantôme [je m’évade]
J’en [postpose vos] destins
L‘amour rend aveugle, mon gamin
Mais je n’ai pas trouvé mieux
C’est une putain d’une vie
(Pute ! Juste une pute !)
Un enfer sur terre
(Juste une pute, ouais !)
C’est une putain d’une vie
Tout ce [temps que l’on perd]
GEORG: Je passe mes nuits à [fuir] les murmures
Sans jamais trouver repos
Quand je pense aux [douces mélodies]
De ma prof au piano
Et ses seins qui m’envisage
[________ est trop]
[Et les phantasmes d’un enfant sage]
[partager_______]
GARÇONS: C’est une putain d’une vie
(Pute ! Just une put !)
Un enfer sur terre
(Un enfer sur terre!)
C’est une putain d’une vie
C’est quoi, cette galère ?
Qu’est-ce qu’ils ont tous [après nous] ?
On s’en fout
ERNST: Moi, je mate dans les douches communes
HÄNSCHEN: Bobby Maler est trop beau
J’arracherais bien son costume.
ERNST: Je [veux sortir la tête] de l’eau.
OTTO: Et cette Marianna Wheeler
Elle ne me rappelle jamais
HÄNSCHEN: C’est comme si [j’ouvrais les vannes], mec
[Pas moyen d’] y échapper
MELCHIOR: C’est une putain de vie !
GARÇONS: C’est une putain de vie !
MELCHIOR: Et ils sont partout
MELCHIOR: C’est une putain de vie
[____] on s’en fout
GARÇONS: C’est une putain de vie
MELCHIOR: Regardez ! Regardez !
GARÇONS: On peux pas sortir
MELCHIOR: J’en appelle à ce ...
GARÇONS: C’est une putain de vie
MORITZ: Moi, j’ai jamais [___ vivre]
MELCHIOR: … que je saurai
GARÇONS: C’est une putain de vie, vie, vie
MELCHIOR: … que je saurai
GARÇONS: Quelle est la sortie ?
C’est une putain de vie
MELCHIOR: [Sans perdre l’esprit]
GARÇONS: Putain, ça y est !
Oh, c’est parfait !
Oh quelle putain d’vie !
MORITZ: I always have this weird dream
That behind the [thick] walls
I could talk to an angel
In Latin or in French
“Get me out of here, I can’t take any more,
I would like to wake up”
“Come here, little one,” she says to me
“The exit [is this way]”
She says “Give me your hand
And your pain, if you want
Tell me everything that upsets you
And that makes you so unhappy”
“And like a ghost, I [escape]
I [put aside your] fates
Love makes you blind, kid
But I haven’t found anything better”
BOYS: It’s a bitch of a life
(Bitch! Just a bitch!)
A Hell on Earth
(Just a bitch, yeah!)
It’s a bitch of a life
All that [time we lose]
GEORG: I spend my nights [fleeing] murmurs
Without ever finding rest
When I think of the [sweet melodies]
Of my teacher at the piano
And her breasts that face me
[_________is too much]
[And the fantasies of a well-behaved child]
[to share ____]
BOYS: It’s a bitch of a life
(Bitch! Just a bitch!)
A Hell on Earth
(Hell on Earth)
It’s a bitch of a life
What is this torture?
What do they all have [against us]?
We don’t care
ERNST: I [check them out in] the communal showers
HÄNSCHEN: Bobby Maler is too handsome
I would tear his suit right off
ERNST: I [want to take my head out of the] water
OTTO: And that Marianna Wheeler
She never calls me back
HÄNSCHEN: It’s like [I'm blowing off steam], man
[No way to escape it]
MELCHIOR: It’s a bitch of a life!
BOYS: It’s a bitch of a life!
MELCHIOR: And they are everywhere
MELCHIOR: It’s a bitch of a life
[_______] we don’t care
BOYS: It’s a bitch of a life
MELCHIOR: I’m calling on...
BOYS: It’s a bitch of a life
MORITZ: I’ve never [___ to live]
MELCHIOR: What I will know
BOYS: It’s a bitch of a life, life, life
MELCHIOR: What I will know
BOYS: Where’s the exit?
It’s a bitch of a life
MELCHIOR: [Without losing your mind]
BOYS: Fuck, that’s it
Oh, that’s perfect
Oh, what a bitch of a life.
this song was exceptionally difficult to hear with all the stage noise and mumbling, so there are significant gaps in what I can parse out. i hope if anyone else speaks french they will offer their thoughts on those blank spots!
“putain de...” structured profanity in french is a vast catch all for many different types of cursing we would use in english: “bitch of a ...” / “fucking ...” / “bloody ...” etc. now personally, i do think “fucking life” is more correct, but the syntax of the sentences it is used in works better in english with “bitch of a life.” the “fuck, that’s it” at the end is the same word i previously translated as bitch, but it is not followed by the “de...” construction, and so is more easily translated directly as the interjection “fuck!”
moritz’ dialogue with the angel is put into quotation marks based on my best guess of what she says versus what he narrates. the delivery does not make it clear in inflection exactly what part is the angel, so some of the lines are questionable in speaker, such as “But I haven’t found anything better,” which could easily be spoken by the angel or by moritz.
“what is this torture?” galère literally means either chore/pain/hell as in “this homework is a real pain/is giving me hell” (also the galley of a ship though that’s clearly not the right option here) but the grammatical flow was strange when i tried to use those phrasings directly, so i substituted torture as a plausible american english equivalent expression.
ernst’s lines make very little sense, and i must be missing something here. really butchered whatever was supposed to be here, sorry for it.
“blowing off steam.” c’est comme si j’ouvrais les vannes is literally closer to “it’s like i’ve opened up the sluice gate” but that is nearly meaningless in english, so an equivalent expression of blowing off steam seemed like a good option to be just a touch suggestive (as the french reads to me like hänschen talking about the release of masturbation). it is also very much worth noting that this hänschen’s lines do not imply, like the original english can, that hänschen is at all sexually successful. he gives no advice on how to “screw them all,” just advises that masturbation is a source of escapism.
EDIT 1/10/25: cleared up 2 lines in georg’s second verse. not much, though. still only fragments.
EDIT 9/10/25: altered the english translation of ernst’s first line to sound more fluent.
EDIT 12/15/25: thanks to @raphpic for contributions and corrections to the transcription!
