Paroles et traduction Charles Trenet - Kangourou

Kangourou

Kangourou, Kangourou,
Mon gentil Kangourou
Aux yeux verts au poil roux,
On t'aimait ici beaucoup.
On t'avait rapporté
Du pays des grands étés,
D'Australie,
Dans un lit,
Un petit lit de paille bien joli.
Kangourou, Kangourou,
Les premiers jours furent si doux.
Tu sautais comme un fou,
Gambadant un peu partout.
Sous les arbres, dans leurs fleurs,
Tu faisais le joli cÅâ ur.
Les voisins sans courroux
Disaient: "Qu'il est gentil, ce Kangourou."
Tu grandis, tu grandis.
Le jardin devint trop p'tit.
A la fin, rassasié
De jouer à saute-rosier,
Saute-lilas, saute-gazon,
Un beau jour, tu fis un bond
Et franchit, c'est malin
Le mur de la maison de Saint Paulin.
Un gendarme qui passait
S'écria: "Mais qu'est-c'que c'est
Que ce gros lapin d'choux
Qui saut' le mur de chez vous?"
Je lui dis: "Ce lapin,
M'sieur l'gendarm' c'est un copain."
Sans m'entendre, il t'emmène
Pour t'enfermer au Zoo de Vincennes.
Nous venions le jeudi
T'apporter des fruits confits.
Tristement, tu r'gardais
Les badauds qui te badaient
Et ton exil semblait dire:
"Est-ce bien vrai ou est-ce pour rire
Ou pour faire un'chanson
Que tu m'as fait jeter dans cett' prison?"
Vint l'automne le temps froid
Et je compris ce jour, ma foi,
En venant un jeudi
Que tu allais mourir d'ennui.
J'eus alors du chagrin
De t'avoir ram'né de si loin
Sans savoir que ton bonheur,
C'était de vivr' du pays de ton cÅâ ur.
Kangourou, Kangourou,
Tu partis, gentil comm' tout,
Pour des lieux merveilleux
Où l'on voit passer l'Bon Dieu,
Mais parfois, quand l'soleil
Brise de ses rayons vermeils
La pluie fine du mois d'août,
Je crois te voir là-haut, mon Kangourou.
Librement, librement,
Tu gambades au firmament.
Sur de beaux nuag's perché,
Tu t'amuses à saute-clocher,
Saut' le toit d'la maison,
Saut' les vers de ma chanson,
Loin des cages des verrous
Et sans raucune pour moi, mon Kangourou.

Kangaroo

Kangaroo, Kangaroo,
My gentle Kangaroo
With green eyes and reddish hair,
We loved you very much here.
We had brought you back
From the land of long summers,
From Australia,
In a bed,
A little, pretty bed of straw.
Kangaroo, Kangaroo,
The first days were so sweet.
You jumped like a madman,
Frolicking everywhere.
Under the trees, in their flowers,
You played the handsome heartbreaker.
The neighbors without anger
Said: "How cute he is, this Kangaroo."
You grew up, you grew up.
The garden became too small.
In the end, tired
Of playing leapfrog,
Leaping over lilacs, leaping over grass,
One fine day, you made a leap
And cleverly jumped over
The wall of Saint Paulin's house.
A gendarme who was passing by
Exclaimed: "But what is that
That big cabbage rabbit
Jumping your wall?"
I told him: "This rabbit,
Mr. Policeman, is my friend."
Without listening to me, he took you away
To lock you up at the Vincennes Zoo.
We used to come on Thursdays
To bring you candied fruit.
Sadly, you looked at
The onlookers who were gaping at you
And your exile seemed to say:
"Is it really true or is it for laughs
Or to make a song
That you had me thrown into this prison?"
Autumn came, the cold weather
And that day, upon my soul,
I understood on a Thursday
That you were going to die of boredom.
I was so sad then
To have taken you from so far away
Without knowing that your happiness,
Was to live in the country of your heart.
Kangaroo, Kangaroo,
You left, gentle as ever,
For wonderful places
Where the Good Lord is seen passing by,
But sometimes, when the sun
Breaks the August drizzle
With its crimson rays,
I think I see you up there, my Kangaroo.
Freely, freely,
You frolic in the sky.
Perched on beautiful clouds,
You amuse yourself with steeple-hopping,
Jumping the roof of the house,
Jumping the lines of my song,
Far from the cages and bolts
And without any grudge against me, my Kangaroo.