Hier Encore [English translation]

Just yesterday

I was twenty years old.

I petted time

And played at life

Like you play at love,

And I lived at night

Without putting much stock in my days

Which fled into the mists of time.

I began so many projects

That never got beyond half-finished,

I dreamed up so many hopes

That flew away,

That I am still lost,

Not knowing where to go,

With my eyes scouring the sky,

But my heart is stuck on the ground.

Just yesterday

I was twenty years old.

I wasted time

Believing I had stopped it,

And to keep it in my grasp,

Even anticipate it,

All I did was run

And run out of breath.

Ignoring the past,

Always planning out tomorrow,1

I prefixed with, "I,"

Every conversation,

And I gave my opinion,

Which I always considered the best,

To critique the world

Ever so flippantly.

Just yesterday

I was twenty years old.

But I frittered away my time

On silly things

That left me with basically

Nothing in particular

Other than a few wrinkles on my brow

And a fear of being bored.

For my loves all died

Before they ever came to be.

My friends are all gone

And won't be back.

I have only myself to blame

For the void I've created around me,

And I've squandered my life

And the years of my youth.

From the best and the worst,

Throwing away the best,

I force my smiles

And I've frozen my tears.

Where are they today,

Today, my twenties?

1. A literal translation here would be, "Conjugating in the future tense." I have chosen to render this in a more idiomatic way, extracting the meaning from the metaphor. It may not be too poetic but it's more likely to be understood.

• Artist:Charles Aznavour