Jacques Bertin - I have not much to say

Original Title: "J'ai peu de choses à dire"
Year: 1974

I have not much to say, afterall
I am not looking for much
And everything else it's a clothing over me
More or less tailored

I can well share your combat, your certainties,
blotting paper
The ill, mine, is elsewhere
A lantern that remained lit

I write, my wife sleeps
I gather a meager luggage
some meager goods
Some vague ideas
Attempts of notions

All what I subscribe to
is that in good understanding
One has to admit
remains of your wardrobes,
ideas of revolution

What do I have that belongs to me?
My mother who washes on mondays
When she cries it's because her eyes are full of soap
The linen dries, the kitchen is wet
The radio covers the shouts of the kids

I have nothing but a banal childhood
Like a cardboard schoolbag
Oh the warm apartments
The beautiful ladies
Men who talk very well
and read progressive newspapers

As if the world belonged to you
Oh young men of means
You are the best up unto the revolt
Oh impeccable rebels

What do I have that belongs to me?
The silence of the children of the poors
And two or three details to tell to the buddies
The days of abandon

A sunday morning during the winter
One day when I was a kid
It was warm, outside I hear the dynamo pass

What is it? My possession.
What can I put in the balance?
A memory devoid of interest
A Good Friday night We were going
to drink a 25 francs coffee
On a countryside table

Downtown some gentlemen and ladies
talk about the poets
with some deportment
What do I have to say?
Noone gave me the right to speak

I have the coat pierced to the winds
to the stars of the revolution
I am on my bicycle
I come home by the white cross
Oh my father and my mother
Leave the garage lit
I come back home