After a good night's sleep and slowing down the audio, I am hearing this for line 2:

Il est dur, ça, moi là. Quand je seras là, seras mis dans le cercueil. "That's hard, with me there.
When I'll be there, be placed in the coffin."

OK, I think I have it mostly worked out. It's the last line of the third verse (the one about the rosary) that I am having trouble deciphering/transcribing.

Here is what I have so far, starting with the Lomax transcription but making edits and revisions based on what I am hearing when I slow down the audio:

Mon père, j’ai péché.
Moi, je pourrais plus confesser du tout.
Father, I have sinned.
I can no longer make confession.

[Note for cultural context: the narrator has committed a mortal sin, so he cannot obtain absolution merely through confession; this implies he is now asking for extreme unction instead, just before he is hanged on the gallows.]


Il est dur, ça, moi là,
quand (je) seras là, seras mis dans l(e) cerceuil.
It’s hard, me being there,
when I will be there, placed in the coffin.

Vendredi passé,
quand donc ils m’appelaient,
moi, j'ai appelé le chapelain, dans mes blues. *
Last Friday,
when they were calling on me,
I called for the chaplain, in my blues. *

* [I am having some trouble with this line. The Lomax liner notes have "Moi, j'ai vu le chapelet." But listen closely and I don't think it sounds anything like "vu". What I am hearing is "Moi, j'ai appelé le chapelain". Taken in light of the first verse with its reference to a priest, I think this is the narrator's request to see the prison chaplain when they come to his jail cell to take him to the gallows. As for the last part of the line, the last word has muffled audio for the initial consonant so it is a bit ambiguous. The liner notes have, "dans mes yeux"; but I think it might be, "dans mes blues".]

Ils m’ont dit
moi, je faut je vas donc monter,
dessus la potence de toujours.
They told me,
I had to go, though, to go up
on the gallows for forever.


Quand j’ai monté dessus la potence,
Moi, j’ai vu la seule petite brune.
C’était devant mes yeux.
When I went up on the gallows,
I saw that one little brunette.
She was in front of my eyes.

Va donc rouverre donc mes fosses,
et la porte du cimetière, bébé,
pour m’en aller,
dans les flammes de l’enfer brûler.
Go ahead, then, and open my grave,
and the cemetery door, babe,
so I can go away,
into the flames of Hell to burn.

Mmm, j’y gone être planté,
sur la montagne pour toi.
Mmm, I’m gonna be placed there,
on the mountain for you.

Et trois jours après ma mort,
viens donc t’assir sur la croix de ma tombe.
O la misère…
And three days after my death,
well, come sit on the cross of my tomb.
Oh, misery.