Sing Then, Sing

Sing, then, sing. On that damned guitar,

Your fingers dance in a semicircle.

If only I could drown in this intoxication,

My last, my only friend.

Don't look at her wrists

Or the silk cascading from her shoulders.

I sought happiness in this woman,

But unwittingly found my doom.

I didn't know that love was a contagion,

I didn't know that love was a plague.

She came up and, with a half-closed eye,

Drove the hooligan mad.

Sing, my friend. Bring back to me once more

Our former wild days of yore.

Let her kiss another,

That young, beautiful triffle.

Ah, wait. I'm not scolding her.

Ah, wait. I'm not cursing her.

Let me play a tune for you in my mind

To this bass string.

The rosy dome of my days pours forth.

In my heart, a whirlwind of golden dreams.

I've felt my way through many girls,

Pressed many women against the walls.

Yes! There is a bitter truth of this world,

Which I glimpsed with a child's eye:

Male dogs take turns licking

A bitch dripping with juice.

So why should I be jealous of her?

So why should I suffer like this?

Our life is a sheet and a bed.

Our life is a kiss and a plunge into the abyss.

Sing then, sing! In the fateful sweep

Of these hands lies fateful misfortune.

But you know, to hell with them -

I shall never die, my friend, never.