Varsovie [English translation]

When I came there the station was empty.

Warsaw in the morning is a somewhat sad sight, indeed.

As a good capitalist, I grab some cash fom an ATM for Kasia.

In the bar, a kid just stuck his nose into a bowl of cold soup.

A backpack making a stopover on a lonesome platform1

I send a few crazy pics through my phone, bits of my story

to the friends in Paris who tell me "Come back, you don't belong there!"

Alone in the carriage, my glance is jumping through the window.

I look at Warszawa as it recedes far away from me.

We will race the horizon toward Zakopagne.

Snow is besieging old Poland.

Suddenly I picture some other trains that indeed must have travelled that way

Toothless old woman pulling a cart

A headless bird flies like a celestial wave.

The day is breaking

on the countryside.

An old mad horse

stands up to me from afar.

Sometimes, I dream that I'm Zhivago

and she awaits me there,

under the raven flight.

Still in the corridor, another figure

comes and joins his smoke,

his cigarette smoke to mine.

I'm not alone anymore now, and with a Polish eye

he says a few words in a Slavic silence.

I think he's beautiful

In the dinner car, on an old gas stove

they cook a steak that bleeds vodka for me.

The old times are beautiful!

Soon all this will be wrapped in plastic at the morgue,

and this place will be like everywhere else.

A lifeless club sandwich in a soundless carriage.

My corridor friend joins me, as expected,

and hands me without a word a tea spiked with brandy.

Without understanding a single of each other's word,

we talk about our women, our lives.

Travellers, we put our worlds to rights,

and some kids show up.

They eyes are from the future

and their hearts from the stars!

In these parts you don't smile, except maybe when you drink.

There is Bartek, Lanek, Vojtek and me.

Come on, kid, sing about how bright tomorrow will be

and let the vodka make the sorrow fade away.

Friend, you who are from another land,

I'm following you, in love2

The day is breaking

on the dead countryside.

An old mad horse

speaks to me a bit from afar.

Sometimes, I dream that I'm Zhivago

and she awaits me there,

under the ravens' flight.

1. "quai" can both mean a train platform or a dock2. The sentence plays on both meanings of "je suis" : "I follow" or "I am". It can be read as "I'm following you, in love" or an unusual variant of "I am in love with you", sounding a bit like "I am in love to you"

• Artist:Damien Saez
• Album:Varsovie