Is this correct or do you have a better suggestion ?

[Pads]

nous seuls au monde face à ce ballet

We alone in the world face this ballet

Many thanks

[Pads]

While im hear any ideas for OSAIT ?

The whole sentance is

A pein si l'on osait parler

Edit

May have the answer is it

If one dared to speak ?

[Chancer]

I really need more of the context to be sure but:

Hardly, if I/we/they were to dare speak it

[Pads]

Thankyou Chancer

This is the whole verse

Des flamants roses allumaient le ciel

Tout semblait presque irréel

Nous seuls au monde face à ce ballet

A pein' si l'on osait parler .

Many thanks

[TWINKLE]

"We hardly dared speak"

Hi Pads!  Sounds like us pair [:D]

[DerekJ]

Shouldn't it be..... A peine  ?

[Pads]

Thanks twinks ....

I keep emailing you but they come back dont know if its you or me ...as im having probs with my puter now I have it back here

While we are both on line email me now and I'll let you know if I get it ...its easier to reply to one sent

[Pads]

[quote user="DerekJ"]Shouldn't it be..... A peine  ?

[/quote]

What Im reading is....

A pein' si l'on osait parler

[Loiseau]

That could well be right in the context of a poem. There *is* an apostrophe to show something (the final e) is missing; plus if that final e *were* there, it would probably have to be pronounced - in poetic fashion – making an extra syllable that would spoil the whole scan of the line.

Counting the syllables as they stand (without pronouncing the final e of peine), the lines come out as:

10

8

10

8

Actually I have just googled the line, and see that it’s a song about . . . Ireland!

Can’t say I saw many flights of pink flamingoes last time I was there, but maybe I was in the wrong place. ;-)

Angela

PS

I would say:

Pink flamingoes lit up the sky

Everything seemed almost unreal

Alone in the world, watching this ballet

We hardly dared breathe a word.

[Pads]

Ah so not flemish roses then !!! I wondered how they would light up the sky !!

As you can see my french gets no better ..oh well back to the drawing board ....

[NormanH]

[quote user="Loiseau"]That could well be right in the context of a poem. There *is* an apostrophe to show something (the final e) is missing; plus if that final e *were* there, it would probably have to be pronounced - in poetic fashion – making an extra syllable that would spoil the whole scan of the line.

Counting the syllables as they stand (without pronouncing the final e of peine), the lines come out as:

10

8

10

8

Actually I have just googled the line, and see that it’s a song about . . . Ireland!

Can’t say I saw many flights of pink flamingoes last time I was there, but maybe I was in the wrong place. ;-)

Angela

PS

I would say:

Pink flamingoes lit up the sky

Everything seemed almost unreal

Alone in the world, watching this ballet

We hardly dared breathe a word.[/quote]

A brilliant translation. Congratulations.

Unfortunately the original text is meretricious (as suggested by previous remarks about the ridiculous references to flamingoes....confused perhaps with Yeat's 'Wild Swans' ?) .

It is clear that the song- writer know nothing about the subject, and that the singer and song are abject.

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDUzMzg2MzI=.html