Les cardinaux en costume [English translation]

Magyd sleeps in the light

The light of the headlamps and the ring road

One cheek against the ground

One hand on his knife

A man sleeping on the tarmac

That doesn’t seem to trouble

The suited cardinals

Behind the tinted glass

And Sabrina who hides herself

And who hopes for her daughter, something other

Than this money that she snatches

From the hands that undress her

She turns up the volume

So as not to know who they are

Suited cardinals

And pompous know-it-alls

What a life! How sad!

What country is this

Not my one, no

It can’t be mine!

What a life, how sad ....!

And Mamadou who gets sent

To the back of the plane

And to a place of which

He knows nothing but the name

He’s light as a feather

Unhappy as a child

The suited cardinals

Sit in the seats at the front

N’Guyen the illegal immigrant

There’s no trace of her

She came to work on a sewing machine

Those girls who collapse are replaced

It’s for some steaming soup

It’s paid piecemeal

For the dresses and the suits

Of the impatient cardinals

What a life!

N’Guyen the illegal immigrant

And Mamadou who gets transferred

And Sabrina who works the street

and this Magyd who sleeps on the ground

When the lights go up

Everyone walk out silently

The suited cardinals

Weren’t at the showing

What a life! How sad!

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