Alexandrie [English translation]

I'm singing about my nostalgia to you

Don't laugh if I blush

My memories are still fresh

And I am still homesick

For twenty five years however

I have lived far away from where I was born

Twenty five years that I've spent stirring

In my still impacted memory

The perfumes, colours, and shouts

From the city of Alexandria

The sun that burned the streets

Where my childhood vanished

The singing and the five o'clock prayer

The peace that showed us to our hearts

The raw onion and the bean dishes

Seemed like a dream feast to us

The hookahs in the cafes

And the time for philosophising

With old men, lunatics, wise men

And passing foreigners

Arabs, Greeks, Jews, Italians

All good Mediterranean people

All companions from the same side of the sea

Love and madness came first

I want to sing for all of those who

Didn't call me Moustaki

They used to call me Jo or Joseph

It was more short and sweet

Friends from the streets or high school

Friends from good times spent together

Our wives were kids

Our loves were clandestine

We learned to kiss each other

We never knew when to stop

Almost an eternity ago

My childhood dumped me

She's coming back like a ghost

She's bringing me back to her kingdom

As if nothing changed

As if time had frozen

She's bringing back my adolescence

She's putting them back into the present for me

Forgive me if I'm rambling

I haven't found the antidote

To cure my nostalgia

Don't laugh if I blush

I'm sure they'll understand me

We all have our own wounds

Our corner of lost paradise

Our little fortified garden

Mine is called Alexandria

And over there it's far away from Paris.

• Artist:Georges Moustaki