Elle fréquentait la Rue Pigalle [English translation]

She frequented the rue Pigalle1

She smelled of cheap vice

She was utterly black from sins

With a very pale poor face

But in the depths of her eyes there was

Like something miraculous

Which seemed to put a bit of blue sky

Into the utterly filthy sky of Pigalle

He had said to her "You are beautiful."

And usually, in those parts,

They never say things that way

To girls in the same business as her;

And as she wanted to confess

He covered her all over with kisses

While saying to her "Forget2 your past,

Me, I see only one thing, that's that you are beautiful"

There are some pictures that bother you;

And when she went out with him,

From Barbés to Clichy3

Her past made faces at him.

And on the pavements full of memories

She saw his love wither,

so then she asked him to depart

And he took her towards Montparnasse4

She thought she would restart her life

But it was him who started to change,

He looked at her in surprise,

Saying "I thought you were prettier,

Here the daylight lights you too well,

One can see your vices on your skin,

Perhaps it would be better that you go back up there

and each of us takes up our previous lives."

She went back to her Pigalle,

There's no-one any more to pull her out of it,

She has found all her sins,

Her dark corners and her filthy pavements.

But when she sees some lovers

Who go along the street looking joyful,

There are tears in her big blue eyes

which run all the way down her very pale cheeks.

1. in the red light district of Paris2. literally "Leave"3. a short trip across central northern Paris along Boulevard Rochechouart and Boulevard du Clichy, distance a bit under 2km if from Barbès-Rochechouart to Place de Clichy, but could be less or more depending on exact start and end points. The northern end of Rue Pigalle at the Place Pigalle, about 100 year to the Clichy side of where the two Boulevards meet.4. in central south Paris, about 6km away from Clichy

• Artist:Édith Piaf