According to Le Larousse, the most famous French dictionary:

→ vanité /va.ni.te/ féminin

1. [orgueil] vanity, pride, conceit. 

2. [futilité] pointlessness, futility.

Today’s post is in honored memory of the late Laurent Meynier, author of “Réflexions photographiques” (“photographic reflections”)

After “Sous ton aile” (“Under your Wing”), Eiffel makes a comeback to The French Blog with “Tes vanités” (“Your Vanities“)
(If your Youtube access is restricted in the US, you may check this live version on Veoh) 

Tes vanités n’ont ni de chair ni de peau

Your vanities have neither flesh nor skin 

Juste des fast-food en lisière des ghettos

Only fast foods on the outskirts of ghettos

Minorités dopées aux crâneries torrentielles

Minorities doped by torrential fanfares

Avant le shoot final dans la poubelle 

Before the final shoot into the garbage

Tes vanités, tes girouettes, tes drapeaux

Your vanities, your weathercocks, your flags

Le Diable est à nos tables

The Devil sits at our tables

Tête-de-mords-toi-la queue parvenir à tes fins 

[This is what is called in French a “calembour“, meaning a “pun”, or a “play on words”, merging the expression “tête de mort” (a “skull”, a “death’s-head”) with the sentence “mords-toi la queue” (“bite your own tail.”) The whole thing yields something like “Death’s-head, bite your own tail to reach your goals”]

Et tenter d’en profiter avant de péter les câbles

And trying to thrive before going nuts

Repose, cool, petit humain, 

Take a rest, cool, little human

Seule la mort sait faire la paix

Death alone knows how to conclude peace

Ta vie n’est qu’une guerre

Your life is nothing but a war

Des vanités

Of the vanities

Et elles nous tirent leurs chapeaux dans le dos

As they tip their hats to us in the back

Fallait pas commencer par tout terminer

One ought not start by finishing everything off

Assouvir ton orgueil, ta fierté, et faire

To satisfy your pride, your dignity, and to

Feu de tout bois au bûcher des vanités

Fire on all cylinders at the bonfire of the vanities

Le coeur de l’histoire est lourd en ego

The heart of history is weighty in ego

Le grelot commun du commun des mortels

[Another pun: “lot commun” (“common burden”) becomes here “grelot commun” (“common bell”, like the bells used by shepherds to keep an eye on their sheep); as to “commun des mortels“, it means the “ordinary people”, the “mere mortals”, the “plebs”, etc.]

Des records, des mirages d’or 

Records, golden mirages 

La misère ordinaire aux frontières du réel

The ordinary misery bordering the edges of reality

Repose, cool, petit humain,

Take a rest, cool, little human

Seule la mort sait faire la paix

Death alone knows how to conclude peace

Ta vie n’est qu’une guerre

Your life is nothing but a war 

Des vanités

Of the vanities

Qu’elle repose en paix

May it rest in peace

Pour de l’amour-propre, combien de mains sales ?

For the sake of self-esteem, how many dirty hands?
[Paradoxical choice of words intended: “sale” means “dirty”, whereas “propre” literally means “clean.”]

Et s’tailler des costards aux frontières des scandales

And to self-tailor suits verging on the scandalous

Nos vanités creusent à toutes fossettes

Our vanities dig in every dimple

Dans le miroir aux alouettes 

In the decoys

Mes vanités n’ont ni de chair ni de peau

My vanities have neither flesh nor skin

Juste des Flash-balls pour les enfants de fachos

Nothing but flash-balls for the kids of fascists

Couvre-toi, couvre-moi, couvre le feu

Cover yourself, cover me, cover the fire

C’est l’hiver en amour, mais putain mais bon Dieu

It’s wintertime for love, but damn it, Good Lord

Mes vanités n’ont ni de chair ni de peau

My vanities have neither flesh nor skin

Mes vanités c’est la terre en sanglots

My vanities are earth broken in tears

Au boulevard des allongés

At the boneyard
[Just like the expression “le jardin des allongés“, literally the “Garden of the Lying Down”, “le boulevard des allongés” is a common French slang expression used to refer to a cemetery.]

Que ravitaillent les corbeaux 

Supplied by the crows [A bit “graphic” indeed, but it is of course meant in a metaphorical sense]

Cool, petit humain  

Cool, little human

Seule la mort sait faire la paix

Death alone knows how to conclude peace

Ta vie n’est qu’une guerre

Your life is nothing but a war

Des vanités

Of the vanities

Repose, cool, j’t’aimais pas bien

Take a rest, cool, I didn’t really like you

Mais la mort sait faire la paix

But death knows how to conclude peace

Et ma vie n’est qu’une guerre

And my life is nothing but a war

Des vanités

Of the vanities

Repose, cool, petit humain

Take a rest, cool, little human

Seule la mort sait faire la paix

Death alone knows how to conclude peace

Ma vie n’est qu’une guerre

My life is nothing but a war

Des vanités

Of the vanities

Cool,

Cool,

J’t’aimais pas bien

I didn’t really like you

J’m’aimais pas bien

I didn’t really like myself

Ma vie n’est qu’une guerre

My life is nothing but a war

Des vanités

Of the vanities

Eiffel – Tes Vanités (“Trabendo Session”)