Un enfant [English translation]

A child—

unleashes your dream,

brings it to the lips,

and goes away singing.

A child

with a little luck,

understands the silence

and cries diamonds.

And laughs without knowing what to do,

and cries when seeing us cry—

falls asleep with gold under the eyelids

and sleeps to make us better dream.

A child—

hears the blackbird

that drops its pearls

on the reach of the wind.

A child—

is the last poet

in a world that strives

to grow up.

And asks if the clouds have wings,

and worries about the fallen snow,

and believes that we are faithful,

and has a feeling that there are no fairies.

But a child

and we flee childhood—

a child

and here we are passing by.

A child

and here we are persevering—

a child

and here we are in the past.

• Artist:Petula Clark