Cet amour [English translation]

This love

So violent,

So frail,

So tender,

So desperate.

This love

Beautiful like the day

And bad like the weather

When the weather is bad.

This love so true

This love so beautiful

So happy

So joyful

And so derisory.

Trembling with fear like a child in the dark

And so confident

Like a calm man in the middle of the night.

This love that scared other people

That made them talk

That made them pale.

This love watched

Because we watched it.

Tracked down, hurt, trampled, ended, denied, forgotten

Because we have tracked down, hurt, trampled, ended, denied, forgotten it.

This love so whole

Still so alive

And full of sunlight

It is yours

It is mine

The one that has been

This thing always new

And that has not changed.

As true as a plant

As trembling as a bird

As hot, as alive as summer.

We can both of us

Go away and come back

We can forget

And then go to sleep again

Waking up, suffering, getting old

Going to sleep again

Dreaming about death

Waking up, smiling and laughing

And rejuvenating.

Our love stay there

As stubborn as a mule

Alive like desire

Cruel like memory

Stupid like regrets

Tender like memories

Cold like marble

Beautiful like the day

Frail like a child.

It looks at us, smiling,

And it talks to us without saying a word

And I, I listen to it while trembling

And I cry

I cry for you

I cry for me

I beg you

For you, for me and for all those that love each other

And used to love each other

Yes, I cry to it

For you, for me and for all the others

That I do not know.

Stay here

Where you are

Where you used to be once

Stay here

Do not move

Do not go away

We, who used to love each other

We have forgotten you.

You, do not forget us.

We had only you on Earth

Do not let us become cold

Always further

And anywhere

Show us your presence

Later in a wood

In the forest of memory

Arise suddenly,

Reach out to us

And save us.

• Artist:Jacques Prévert