Brave Margot

Margoton, the young shepherdess
Finding in the grass a little cat
Who had just lost its mother
Adopted it

She opens her collar
And lays it against her breast
It was all she had, poor thing
As a cushion

The cat, mistaking her for its mother
Started suckling right away
Touched, Margot let him do it
Brave Margot!

A peasant, passing by
Finding the unusual scene
Went to tell everyone
And the next day

When Margot unbuttoned her bodice
To give the drop to her cat
All the guys, all the guys in the village
Were there, la la la la la
Were there, la la la la la

And Margot, who was simple and very wise
Assumed it was to see her cat
That all the guys, all the guys in the village
Were there la la la la la la
Were there la la la la la la

The schoolmaster and his pupils
The mayor, the sexton, the bartender
Completely neglected their tasks
To see that

The postman, usually so quick
To see that, stopped delivering
Letters that no one else
Would have read

To see that (God forgive them!)
The choirboys, in the middle
Of the holy sacrifice, abandoned
The holy place

The gendarmes, even the gendarmes
Who are naturally so foolish
Were touched by the charms
Of the pretty scene

But the other women of the town
Deprived of their husbands, their lovers
Accumulated resentment
Patiently

Then one day, drunk with anger
They armed themselves with sticks
And, fierce, they sacrificed
The kitten

The shepherdess, after many tears
To console herself took a husband
And no longer revealed her charms
Except to him

Time passed over memories
The event was forgotten
Only the old ones still tell
To their little children