One Little Man [Le Petit Homme] lyrics

Life in the street is the same every day

Life in the street is a marvelous play

Ladies and lovers and bankers and bums

Hurry along while the big city hums

People are frowning while others are gay

Music tumbling from every café

There’s all of the wonder of life and love

Out in the street with the blue sky above

There in the crowd one little man

Hurries along upon his way

Nobody much, and turning gray

Just one little man

But he has a girl

He’s still a man…

He has a young and lovely girl

Maybe she does demand too much

But who wouldn’t pay to feel her touch

Who wouldn’t pay, especially a man

Who’s turning gray…

He has no children, no home and no wife

He lives a kind of the Saturday life

Saturday evening he runs up the stairs

Launches his face in her deep golden hair

Why should he care if he pays for her charms

He can recapture his youth in her arms

And Saturday night he can live once more

Saturday night he can live just once more…

Then one awful day he climbs the stairs

Picks up a note beneath her door

What should he tear it open for

He knows what he’ll find

Poor little man, he’s left behind…

She’s gone away and he’s alone

She never even said goodbye

Where does a fellow go to cry

Where does he cry?...

Out in the street, beneath the sky…

Life in the street is the same every day

Life in the street is a marvelous play

Ladies and lovers and bankers and bums

Hurry along while the big city hums

People are frowning while others are gay

Music is tumbling from every café

And there with the beautiful sky above…

• Artist:Édith Piaf