Le mal de vivre [English translation]

It does not warn you, it arrives

It comes from afar

It's walked from shore to shore

The laugh on the corner

And so one morning, at the waking up

It's almost nothing

But it's there, it makes you fall asleep

In the hollow of the loin

The pain to live

The pain to live

One has to live

It is worthy to live

One could put it on a shoulder strap

Or like a ring on a hand

Like a flower in a buttonhole

Or at the forefront of a breast

It's not necessary misery

It's no Valmy, it's no Verdun

But it's tears in eyelids

In a day that dies, in a day that comes

The pain to live

The pain to live

One has to live

It is worthy to live

Should we be from Rome or from America

From London or Beijing

Should we be from Egypt or even Africa

Or the port of Saint-Martin

We all pray the same prayer

We all go the same way

And it is long when we have to do it

With our pain in the hollow of the loin

They try to comprehend us in vain

Those who come to us with naked hands

We don't want to hear them anymore

We cannot, we can do it no more

And all alone in the silence

Of a night that does not end it anymore

Then when suddenly we think

Of those who have not come back

From the pain to live

Their pain to live

That they have to live

That it is worthy to live

And without warning, it arrives

It comes from afar

It's walked from shore to shore

The laugh on the corner

And so one morning, at the waking up

It's almost nothing

But it's there, it makes you fall asleep

In the hollow of the loin

The joy to live

The joy to live

Oh, come live it

Your joy to live

• Artist:Barbara