Chanson Cri [English translation]

I want my song to be like a cry of alarm

Between a fashionable air and a crooner,

And even if I don't sing loud enough,

Please listen to me for three more minutes.

When you hear about women being raped,

For many of us, it's just words.

We chat, we get indignant, we close the newspaper

Then we end up finding it almost normal.

Yesterday, I met one of these victims.

For the police, it's a routine thing

And for the others, it's hardly more than a story.

I saw distress deep in hes eyes.

I washed her body covered in semen and blood.

The individual was barely older than a teenager.

Very quickly, he did it without love or pleasure.

Apparently he cried before running away.

My God, what did we do to get there?

What needs to be done to stop it all?

My head is rebelling and my heart is bruised

And I hurt for her and I'm ashamed for him.

But who of us has never raped someone,

To speak only of these petty little rapes

Which are part of our everyday life

And water our thirst for love with tears?

Power, money, strength and contempt,

The authority of the father and that of the husband,

The foolish rigor of the guilty of order

Who creates the rabid that he prevents biting

Because these are our children called the underworld,

Lefties, young thugs, drug addicts and other negroes,

All those who, to survive, seek to dream,

Those looking for the beach below the cobblestones

And if I come to sing on TV,

Within the established framework of consumption,

With the approval of the prince and the court,

Don't believe this is for a speech.

Nor is it to convince or please you

Or sing the ideas which are already in the air

But it's to ask for a better today

By just doing my job as a singer.

I say the boat is taking on water from all sides.

It's about time we try to patch it up.

Victim or criminal, both are concerned

And must someone be guilty, then we should all be sentenced.

• Artist:Georges Moustaki
• Album:1976