En Méditerranée [English translation]

In this basin where

children with black eyes play

there are three continents

and centuries of history,

prophets of the gods,

the Messiah in person.

There is a fair summer there

that fears no autumn,

in the Mediterranean.

There is a smell of blood

floating on its banks

and martyrised countries

like so many open wounds,

barbed-wire islands,

walls that imprison.

There is a fair summer there

that fears no autumn,

in the Mediterranean.

There are olive trees

dying under bombs

in the place where

the first dove appeared,

forgotten people

harvested by war.

There is a fair summer there

that fears no autumn,

in the Mediterranean.

In this basin, I played

when I was a child.

I had my feet in the water.

I breathed the wind.

My playmates

have become men,

the brothers of those

the world has abandoned,

in the Mediterranean.

The sky is in mourning

above the Parthenon,

and "freedom" is no longer

said in Spanish.

But we can go on dreaming

of Athens and Barcelona.

There is still a fair summer there

that fears no autumn,

in the Mediterranean.

• Artist:Georges Moustaki