Il riait [English translation]

He was a guy bad luck

had caught by the arm one day

and taken to sleep at Fresnes1,

that kind of thing you don't forget!

He had the eyes of a mean angel

fallen from a nasty paradise

with a funny weird stare

that did not seem to fit in with him2.

He lugged his black moods around

to all the places you go to drink

so as to drown all his troubles,

but his troubles swam better than him.

His hat cocked

on his jet-black hair

to trick his misery

he just laughed.

He slept with suffering,

a lass you don't want to go out with

and that's why his mistresses

had left him one after the other.

he had misery to spare3

but noone wanted any of it.

So, just to share the load,

I got to love him.

I was about to get rid of his misery,

we should have got married in January,

so of course there was a war,

and we couldn't get wed.

His cap cocked

on his jet-black hair

to trick his misery

he just laughed.

Then he started writing

words he had never said.

He couldn't say them before,

noone had ever taught him.

He said "I'm learning hope.

I know everything is about to happen.

You are my charity ball

and thanks to you, everything will change"

I was thinking "bad luck is taking a break",

but it was only to trample him better.

They found him among [dead] things,

dead before he even lived.

And his helmet cocked

on his jet-black hair,

his brow in the dust,

he just laughed.

1. a famous French prison near Paris2. I can't really understand what she means here. Literaly it says "with a stare that did not seem to be with him". Maybe some outdated slang from the 50's?3. the French expression is something like "enough misery to sell some", so the next lines read "but noone willing to buy some / so, just to buy him some..."