La terre est basse [English translation]

Angèle was born there,

in the great cotton fields,

but cotton there

weights much more than lead.

From dawn till dusk

Angèle carried baskets.

At the end of the season

she got fired.

Angèle didn't protest.

She packed her belongings

and got on a freighter

toward St Malo1,

as if to save her life.

The land is harsh2

Mister, the land is harsh

to the gatherers.

The land is kind,

Mister, the land is kind

to the owners3.

Angèle saw winter

and the snow on the roofs.

Like the cotton of old,

it's white, but much colder.

Now in a joint

she scrubs floors every night.

There are even some jokers

messing with her.

By way of fate, Angèle has nothing

but her white palms inside her clenched fists.

But it slips through her hands

like melting snow

or cotton bundles.

The land is harsh,

Mister, the land is harsh

to the gatherers.

The land is kind,

Mister, the land is kind

to the owners.

The land is harsh,

Mister, the land is harsh

to the gatherers.

The land is kind,

Mister, the land is kind

to the owners.

1. a port in Brittany2. as a fixed expression, "la terre est basse" (the soil is low) means "this is hard work" (as hard as doing some gathering in a field), but here it's used in a more specific context3. lit. "for the ones who give orders"

• Artist:Pierre Bachelet
• Album:Quelque part... c'est toujours ailleurs (1989)