La Robe et l'Échelle [English translation]

You had put on you your pretty light dress

I, against a cherry tree, the ladder

You had wanted to climb up first

And after ...

There are so many fashions and manners

Of saying things without they be uttered

And since you knew so well how to do it

You did it

A laughter, a smile, then an outstretched hand

And by the interplays of transparence

Those fruits barely concealed in the folds of cloth

Swaying forth

It was not about climbing all that high

But with both my feet on the lowest rungs

I felt slipping away from me, the cloak

Of the child

Yet we didn't set anything in stone

But I confess thinking of it often

All the times I hear that a tree in bloom

Has fallen

A tree, it is quickly chopped down

The wood, someone must have sold it

If only he knew the trouble I had...

Climbing back down!

Besides, have I gotten over all those

So beautiful games of transparencies,

These fruits in the folds of fabrics

That sway forth?

I have since found other things that matter

Many other 'to-be-met' smiles

But such a stir and lovely lights,

Never!

And at the speed that time passes

The gift is that naught erases

Gist of things

And all flies off into light shades

All except of fever the taste

And honeys

Yes, everything flew off in space

The tree and the ladder, the dress

And the smile

Now, at the rate that the time flies

The miracle is that nothing wipes

the essential

I since found other things to go after

Many other 'to-be-met' smiles

But well, such a beautiful light,

Never!

And see how, from the earth ground where we are

We spend our lives as some poor mortals

Looking for those doors that open, high

Onto the sky

• Artist:Francis Cabrel
• Album:Des roses et des orties