LâĂVEIL DU PRINTEMPS: SCENE 2 PART 4
  CHANSON: « UNE PUTAIN DE VIE »
MORITZ: Je fais toujours le rĂȘve Ă©trange
Que derriÚre le mur [épais]
Je puisse parler Ă un ange
En latin ou en français
â Sortez-moi dâici! Jâen peux plus
Je voudrais me réveiller
â Approche-toi, petit, me dit elle,
La sortie, [câest dâce cĂŽtĂ©] !
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 fantĂŽme [je mâĂ©vade]
Jâen [postpose vos] destins
Lâamour rend aveugle, mon gamin
Mais je nâai pas trouvĂ© mieux
Câest une putain dâune vie
(Pute ! Juste une pute !)
Un enfer sur terre
(Juste une pute, ouais !)
Câest une putain dâune vie
Tout ce [temps que lâon perd]
GEORG: Je passe mes nuits Ă [fuir] les murmures
Sans jamais trouver repos
Quand je pense aux [douces mélodies]
De ma prof au piano
Et ses seins qui mâenvisage
[________ est trop]
[Et les phantasmes dâun enfant sage]
[partager_______]
GARĂONS: Câest une putain dâune vie
(Pute ! Just une put !)
Un enfer sur terre
(Un enfer sur terre!)
Câest une putain dâune vie
Câest quoi, cette galĂšre ?
Quâest-ce quâils ont tous [aprĂšs nous] ?
On sâen fout
ERNST: Moi, je mate dans les douches communes
HĂNSCHEN: Bobby Maler est trop beau
Jâarracherais bien son costume.
ERNST: Je [veux sortir la tĂȘte] de lâeau.
OTTO: Et cette Marianna Wheeler
Elle ne me rappelle jamais
HĂNSCHEN: Câest comme si [jâouvrais les vannes], mec
[Pas moyen dâ] y Ă©chapper
MELCHIOR: Câest une putain de vie !
GARĂONS: Câest une putain de vie !
MELCHIOR: Et ils sont partout
MELCHIOR: Câest une putain de vie
[____] on sâen fout
GARĂONS: Câest une putain de vie
MELCHIOR: Regardez ! Regardez !
GARĂONS: On peux pas sortir
MELCHIOR: Jâen appelle Ă ce ...
GARĂONS: Câest une putain de vie
MORITZ: Moi, jâai jamais [___ vivre]
MELCHIOR: ⊠que je saurai
GARĂONS: Câest une putain de vie, vie, vie
MELCHIOR: ⊠que je saurai
GARĂONS: Quelle est la sortie ?
Câest une putain de vie
MELCHIOR: [Sans perdre lâesprit]
GARĂONS: Putain, ça y est !
Oh, câest parfait !
Oh quelle putain dâvie !
  SONG: âBITCH OF LIFEâ
MORITZ: I always have this weird dream
That behind the [thick] walls
I could talk to an angel
In Latin or in French
âGet me out of here, I canât take any more,
I would like to wake upâ
âCome here, little one,â she says to me
âThe exit [is this way]â
She says âGive me your hand
And your pain, if you want
Tell me everything that upsets you
And that makes you so unhappyâ
âAnd like a ghost, I [escape]
I [put aside your] fates
Love makes you blind, kid
But I havenât found anything betterâ
BOYS: Itâs a bitch of a life
(Bitch! Just a bitch!)
A Hell on Earth
(Just a bitch, yeah!)
Itâs 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: Itâs a bitch of a life
(Bitch! Just a bitch!)
A Hell on Earth
(Hell on Earth)
Itâs a bitch of a life
What is this torture?
What do they all have [against us]?
We donât care
ERNST: I [check them out in] the communal showers
HĂNSCHEN: 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
HĂNSCHEN: Itâs like [I'm blowing off steam], man
[No way to escape it]
MELCHIOR: Itâs a bitch of a life!
BOYS: Itâs a bitch of a life!
MELCHIOR: And they are everywhere
MELCHIOR: Itâs a bitch of a life
[_______] we donât care
BOYS: Itâs a bitch of a life
MELCHIOR: Iâm calling on...
BOYS: Itâs a bitch of a life
MORITZ: Iâve never [___ to live]
MELCHIOR: What I will know
BOYS: Itâs a bitch of a life, life, life
MELCHIOR: What I will know
BOYS: Whereâs the exit?
Itâs a bitch of a life
MELCHIOR: [Without losing your mind]
BOYS: Fuck, thatâs it
Oh, thatâs 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!
âputain de...â structured profanity in french is a vast catch all for many different types of cursing we would use in english: âbitch of a ...â / âfucking ...â / âbloody ...â etc. now personally, i do think âfucking lifeâ is more correct, but the syntax of the sentences it is used in works better in english with âbitch of a life.â the âfuck, thatâs itâ at the end is the same word i previously translated as bitch, but it is not followed by the âde...â construction, and so is more easily translated directly as the interjection âfuck!â
moritzâ 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 âBut I havenât found anything better,â which could easily be spoken by the angel or by moritz.
âwhat is this torture?â galĂšre literally means either chore/pain/hell as in âthis homework is a real pain/is giving me hellâ (also the galley of a ship though thatâs 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.
ernstâs lines make very little sense, and i must be missing something here. really butchered whatever was supposed to be here, sorry for it.
âblowing off steam.â câest comme si jâouvrais les vannes is literally closer to âitâs like iâve opened up the sluice gateâ 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 hĂ€nschen talking about the release of masturbation). it is also very much worth noting that this hĂ€nschenâs lines do not imply, like the original english can, that hĂ€nschen is at all sexually successful. he gives no advice on how to âscrew them all,â just advises that masturbation is a source of escapism.
EDIT 1/10/25: cleared up 2 lines in georgâs second verse. not much, though. still only fragments.
EDIT 9/10/25: altered the english translation of ernstâs first line to sound more fluent.
EDIT 12/15/25: thanks to @raphpic for contributions and corrections to the transcription!