En sortant de l'école [English translation]

While leaving school

We ran into

A large railroad

That led us

All around the earth

In a golden wagon

All around the earth

We ran into

The sea that showed off

All of its shells

Its scented islands

And its beautiful

shipwrecks

And its smoked salmon.

Above the sea

We ran into

The moon and the stars

On a sailboat

Departing for Japan

And the three musketeers

with five fingers on their hands

Turning the crank handle of a small submarine

Diving deep down in the seas

To look for sea urchins.

Returning to land

On the railway

We ran into

A house that flew by

Flew all around the earth

Flew all around the earth

Flew before the winter

That wanted to catch us

But we started rolling

Rolling behind winter

And we crushed it

And the house stopped

And spring welcomed us.

It was the crossing-keeper

And it thanked us well

And all the flowers on earth

Suddenly started to grow

To grow indiscriminately

On the railway

That didn’t want to keep going

For fear of ruining them.

So we went back on foot

on foot all around the earth

on foot all around the sea

All around the sun

Around the moon and the stars

On foot, on horseback, by car, and by sailboat.

• Artist:Yves Montand