| Ils étaient couverts de poussière | Back to a village, they'd been stood down
| Depuis la tête jusqu'aux pieds | Covered in dust from toe to crown.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Ils regardaient la vaste plaine | They looked at the plain and it was vast
| En parlant entre eux du passé | And they were talking about the past.
| Et ne se retournaient qu'à peine | They talked about the past so well
| Quand un obus avait toussé | They hardly turned round at the crump of a shell.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Tous quatre de la classe seize | Not for them was the future, this class of '16.
| Parlaient d'antan non d'avenir | Their talk of the past and how it had been
| Ainsi se prolongeait l'ascèse | Was the working out of a discipline
| Qui les exerçait à mourir | That ground them down till it grubbed them in.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | | | | | | | | |