Léo Ferré - Louis Aragon - I sing to pass the time

Original title: "Je chante pour passer le temps"
Text: Louis Aragon (1956)
Year: 1959

I sing to pass the time
short amount of it that I have left to live
Like you draw on the frost
Like you make your heart pleased
while throwing pebbles on the pond
I sing to pass the time

I have lived marvels during the day
You and I, remember it
And I have broken through the wall of the years
The ears full of miracles
Our universe is not the same anymore
I have lived marvels during the day

Let's have those fingers untangled now
Like the forehead from the glory
Our eyes were first to see
the clouds lower than us
And the lark at our knees
Let's have those fingers untangled now

We have made moonlights
For our palaces and our statues
What matters now that we are being killed
The nights will fall one by one
China turned itself into the Commune
We have made moonlights

And I would tell and I would tell
So much was this life adventure
Where man has become life-size
His voice above the forests
The mountains, the seas and the secrets
And I would tell and I would tell

Yes; I sing to pass the time
The bow wears out against the violin
The pebble at the game of rebounds
And how my love is touching
Near me in the leaning shadow
Yes, I sing to pass the time

I sing to pass the time
Yes to pass the time I sing

Philippe Léotard's version:


All poems written by Louis Aragon