Elsa [English translation]

Is it enough that you appear ?

That look, (when) you tie again

Your hair, that touching gesture.

May I be reborn and recognize

A world inhabited by songs

Elsa1 my love my youth

Water (is) strong2 and sweet as a wine

Like in the sun of the windows

You give me the caress of being

You give me the thirst and the hunger

To live again and to know

Our story until the end

It's a miracle to be together

That the light on your cheek

That around you the wind is playing

Always if I see you I'm shaking

As at his first date

A young man who looks like me

For the first time your mouth

For the first time your voice

From a wing on top of the woods

The tree shudders to the stump

It's always the first time

When your dress casually touches me

My life in truth begins

The day I met you

You whose arms knew how to steer

His atrocious road to my dementia

And who showed me the land

That goodness alone sow

You came to the heart of the confusion

To chase bad fevers

And I flamed up like a juniper

At Christmas between your fingers

I was born really from your lip

My life is from you

Is it enough that you appear ?

That look, (when) you tie again

Your hair, that touching gesture.

May I be reborn and recognize

A world inhabited by songs

Elsa my love my youth

1. Elsa Triolet, the friend of Louis Aragon who wrote this poem.2. "Eau forte" also means "etching".

• Artist:Léo Ferré