Huddled up to reason

Quand la pluie tombait en rafales
Sur notre petite maison
Nous etions a l'abri de mail,
Blottis aupres de la raison.

La raison est un gros chien tendre
Et c'est l'oppose de la perte
Il n'y a plus rien a comprendre
L'obeissance nous est offerte.

Donnez-moi la paix, le bonheur,
Liberez mon coeur de la haine
Je ne peux plus vivre dans la peur,
Donnez-moi la mesure humaine.

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There was a hard rain falling
On our little house
We were sheltered from danger,
Huddled up to reason.

Reason is like a shaggy dog
Nothing is ever lost
And there is nothing left to learn,
Only the path to obedience.

Give me peace, and happiness,
Free my heart from hatred
I can't go on in fear,
Put me in time with humanity,
Give me the measure of life.

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Michel Houellebecq
"The Art of Struggle"
pps 166-167
Herla Publishing
Flammarion, 1996
Translated by Delphine Grass and Timothy Mathews