Coup de grisou [English translation]

He was simply a man,

A bloke who had no ambitions,

Yet, Good God, he really was strong!

He didn't have a steady job,

And he worked as a coal miner

In the grimy northern cities.

He was named "Firedammp Explosion"

One day when he was enraged

And had turned a whole bistro upside down

along with all its glasses.

Due to toiling in the dark

He liked only the colour of night.

The sun burnt his eyes.

Broad daylight prevented him from speaking.

He was a god of darkness,

A quite sad and unhappy god,

A quite sad and unhappy god.

For he loved beyond all else

A plains girl with red hair,

Red like vine shoots,

Hair on which light poured down.

That made him blink,

As if the sun was signalling to him.

She took him at harvest time

Through the new Sunday paths.

All was light, all was golden,

And the light got its revenge.

It gave him a pain behind the forehead,

But he made allowances.

Certainly he tried to be happy.

That's how one loses a love.

She betrayed him one fine day

With someone who who liked blue skies,

with someone who liked blue skies.

When "Firedamp Explosion" learnt all this,

He was working at the bottom of a shaft

Gleaming with black reflections.

For ten seconds he said nothing

And then all at once he took it in.

Ah! it wasn't a pretty sight,

Just hearing him one asked oneself

If the devil wasn't underground.

It was probable that it looked like that

Because he'd brought everything down.

When real firedamp joined in,

Between the two of them they blew up

The ground, the mine, and everything else !

After three days they brought him up

With his bit of eternity

And when the brought him out of the shaft

Light was laughing at him.

The sun was putting on a show

To hassle him one last time

But Firedamp Explosion was immune1:

He had married darkness.

1. literally "cured"

• Artist:Édith Piaf