Paradis Perdu-- Jean LeLoup

This is a song by Jean LeLoup, translated by E.L. Tempete.


Will you come with us, o stranger?
Where will you stay on this soil,
on this soil,
once you're used to it?

Not much time left before Friday
when you leave or stay,
It's all over.
Never come back to this paradise. Lost.


1.
Across the sea exists a country we've said was impossible,
like the Garden of Eden,
across the sea exists a country as beautiful as madness

Where live a people perfectly healthy, perfectly
welcoming
Who bathe all day beneath the falls and the rocks,
And the rapids and the rivers,
the water as pure and light as the air.

No need to plant,
the wheat pushes itself into harvest, you await the moose,
Glimpse the great beast we call the bison,
The mountains so covered with sheep that we say
they have sprung from the very soil,

Across the sea exists a country as pleasant as paradise,
and the women? So beautiful.

Will you come with us,
will you come with us,
o stranger?

Where will you stay on this soil,
where will you stay on this soil,
once you are used to it?


There's not much time left before Friday
where you stay or leave,
it's all finished,
to never return to this lost paradise.



2.
There will be immediate storms and wind,
there will be blizzards, seas of oil,
There will be murderous waves,
There will be eels and disease,
There will be sharks and scorpions, epidemic,
There will be
there will be

the mutineers,

And many among you will lay aside their lives
to find their destinies.


And if one day we see that promised land,
be careful of who you meet,
many have been thrown overboard and drowned.
There will be the beaches made of quicksand,
You will have to be patient, find the sheltered bays and estuaries.

Across the sea is a land like heaven,
where dwell a people as soft as madness,

And in arriving, you'll probably have to kill a few soldiers,
butcher their leader and the idiot missionary,
Kill all who believed in Me,
And you'll have to paint your ships a different colour
and never return
to this paradise. Lost.