Le Chemin des forains [English translation]

They pierced the night

With a flash of silver sequins

They are going to kill the boredom

For a night in the head of the people.

Dancing on a thread, walking on their hands

They are going to do tricks risking their necks 1

The fairground folk...

Music at full blast,

A clever little monkey

Who chews on a nut and dreams

On the shoulder of an old musician

Who, himself, dreams of nothing

They pierced the night

With a great laughter intermingled with tears

They have killed the boredom

By the echo of their own pain

They have taken the money in the palm of their hands

They have packed their bags and taken to the road again

The fairground folk...

Their gestures of happy children

And their marvellous clothes

Are forever engraved in the eyes

Of the onlookers of a sleepy village

Who are going to dream tonight...

Going to dream tonight

Of a flash of silver sequins

Which comes to kill the boredom

In the heart and the head of the people

But the shadow closes in on the path

And god only knows where they will be tomorrow

The fairground folk

Who leave in the night...

1. 'se briser les reins' - at the risk of breaking their backs. Risking their necks seems a suitable English equivalent.

• Artist:Édith Piaf