Le Contrebandier [English translation]

He was born on the border,

Up there in the North where the wind blows.

A smuggler just like his father,

He had fraud in his blood.

He'd wait for moonless nights

(When it's dark, it's much easier to cross)

To sneak by the great dunes

Where wind from the sea stings our eyes.

Oi, customs!

Oi, customs officers!*

Let loose all your dogs

Then hide

In the back of your shacks.

Watch at the top of the dune

The man that crosses there.

He is alone

Yet you won't catch him.

He doesn't care about customs

In the back of your shacks,

Go, hide

And let loose the dogs.

Oi, customs officers!

Oi, customs!

When he had nothing else to do,

On nights that were too bright,

He'd switch the border markers

And mix up the world**

Or sometimes, in the middle of a crossing,

When he had drunk his fill,

He'd scream like a true savage

And here I cross, hurry up.

Oi, customs!

Oi, customs officers!

Let loose all your dogs

Then hide

In the back of your shacks.

Watch at the top of the dune

The man that crosses there.

It's me, it's only me,

Yet you won't catch me.

I don't care about customs

In the back of your shacks,

Go, hide

And let loose the dogs.

Oi, customs officers!

Oi, customs!

He couldn't get it in his head

That the laws of men are deadly serious.***

He was like a kind of poet

And these guys are dangerous.

So on one night where the moon was up,

He was taking a stroll for fun,

They offed him on the dune

With gunshots to put an end to it.

Oi, customs!

Oi, customs officers!

Hide all your dogs

Then come over here.

From the back of your shacks,

This is fine work,

Only, tonight,

He was but a man.

He wasn't working.

Hear that, customs?

So you shouldn't have...

So hide

In the back of your shacks.

Oi, customs!

Oi, customs officers!

• Artist:Édith Piaf