Sympathique [Je ne veux pas travailler] [English translation]

My [bed]room is a cage

The sun streams across my window

The suitors [knocking] at my door are like little soldiers

Come to take me away.

I don't want to work

I don't want to go out

I want only to forget

[and so it follows that] then I smoke.

I once knew the sweet perfume of love

And now a million roses won't even move me

Now even a single flower

Leaves me sick.

I'm not proud, this lifestyle will kill me,

[I know] it's great to be part of it all*

But I've never known it.

*("sympatique" in this context translates to a sense of empathy or connectedness with the world, the opposite of the self-imposed isolation she's here describing) (I think, anyway :)

• Artist:Pink Martini
• Album:Sympathique (1997)