L'ivrogne et le pénitent

The sun is up, it’s already less dark

I’m not any more drunk than I was last night
Wine charms life and makes us lose our minds
Who are you, singing away?
Who are you, sighing?
I’m a penitent, crying over my life
I cry for it too
Your fate is pious
I cry when the wine pours from my eyes

I only drink water
That’s what makes you pale
I only have one meal all through Lent
I have just one too
So you’re doing your duty
I start in the morning and finish at night

I sleep on a rag
Often out on the street
A man in this state needs to be helped
You must yield to God, it’s the divine duty
I hear when I’m drunk that I should yield to wine

Just think, you have to die
I must die at the table
Without fearing the future, can you handle that?
I only fear thirst
You should fear death
How to face it, when I’m drunk, I sleep

But when you’re dead
Talk to me about something else
They’ll lay your body at the bottom of a pit
Oh no! You lied
Where will they put it?
At the bottom of a cellar among the bottles

Your soul will go to hell
I’ll try to put it out
This fire won’t go out because it burns endlessly
I’ll bring gin
That gin will burn you
I’ll drink it until it cools me down

I teach to fear God
And I teach to drink
To deserve heaven, do you think you can boast about it?
Why are we made this way?
To deserve heaven
And I, to earn it, I drink as much as two

Goodbye, drunkard, goodbye!
Goodbye, hypocritical brother
You stray from your God to follow your barrel
Among five hundred drinkers
Fools like you
I can condemn them, they drink as much as I do