Padam padam [English translation]

This tune which haunts me day and night

This tune wasn't written today

It comes from as far away as I come

Dragged around by a hundred thousand musicains

One day this tune will drive me mad

A hundred times I've wanted to say why

But it's interrupted me

It always speaks before i do

And its voice drowns out my voice

Padam...padam...padam

It comes running up behind me

Padam...padam...padam

It plays me the trick of: do you remember

Padam...padam...padam

It is a tune that points me out

And I drag after me like a mistake child

This tune that knows everything by heart

It says: "Remember your loves

Remember because it's your turn

There's no reason why you shouldn't cry

Encumbered with your memories

"And me, I see again those who remain

My 20 years * make the drum beat

I see the succession of gestures flash by

All the comedy of love

To this tune which just keeps playing

Padam...padam...padam

The "I love you"s of 14th July **

Padam...padam...padam...

The "always" that you buy dirt cheap

Padam...padam...padam

The "would you's" are there in piles

And all this to come upon on the corner of the street

This tune that recognised me

Listen to the commotion which it causes me

As if my whole past went marching by

Need to keep some sorrow for later

I've got scores full in this tune which beats.

Which beats like a wooden heart

• Artist:Édith Piaf