Une petite robe noire [English translation]

A little light black dress

Quite simple and without manners

Was dancing on its own

At the bottom of the closet

Had around it

Only flannel waistcoats

Man shirts

And trousers just like it

It was, alas

Not at all in its place

Lost by chance

Between two suits

An anomaly

Yet so lovely

Suspended, fragile,

In this odd exile,

Virile.

Got to be said girls like it,

Little dresses that a trifle

undresses,

Little piece of fabric

Without which they would go naked,

Little dream where the hand or the gaze

Go astray,

Little black dress

Quite simple and unvarnished,

Little feather stolen from the strange

fineries

Of the angels.

The little black dress

Was telling its beautiful story

Its hours of grace

To the passing spring

When the cashmere

The leather jacket

reassuring and strong,

didn’t hurt her yet;

When a caress

Would turn her into a princess;

When it was going free

With all its fibres,

Before the passing

Of the first storms,

Before she was nailed down

With hazy reproaches

Jealous...

Got to say it costs girls a lot

The little dresses a trifle

undresses,

Little piece of fabric

Without which they’d go naked,

Little dream where the hand or the gaze

Go astray

Quite simple and unvarnished,

Little fallen feather

As a strange souvenir

Of an angel.

The little well-behaved dress

Was getting ravaged

By the offences

Debased with cries

Soiled with scorn,

It was used getting hit

The marks on its neck

The tears that glisten

In the corner of made-up eyes.

An evening of misery

Of ordinary hell,

Of vague rupture,

Of strapping,

It had been scratched

Torn, creased...

And then, really what does it matter?

Left in this way:

Dead.

• Artist:Juliette (France)
• Album:Nour (2013)