Jacques Brel - My childhood

Original Title: "Mon enfance"
Year: 1967

My child hood passed
From greyness to silences
From fake bows
To lack of battles
The winter I was in the belly
Of the big house
Which had dropped anchor
At the north among the bulrushes
The summer half naked
But completely modest
I became Indian
Although already sure
that my full up uncles
Had stolen me my Far West

My childhood passed
Women in the kitchen
Where I was dreaming of China
Grew old in meals
The men at the cheese
Were wrapping themselves with tobacco
Taciturn and wise Flemish
And didn't know me
I who every night
Kneeled for nothing
Played in arpeggios my sorrow
At the bottom of the too big bed
I wanted to take a train
That I have never taken

My childhood passed
From servant to servant
I was already surprised
That they weren't plants
I was surprised still
of those family circles
Strolling from dead to dead
And which are dressed by mourning
I was mostly surprised
To be of that herd
That was teaching me to cry
That I knew too well
I had the eye of the shepherd
But the heart of the lamb

My childhood blew up
It was the teenage years
And the wall of silence
One morning shattered
It was the first flower
And the first girl
The first kind one
And the first fear
I was flying I was swear
I swear that I was flying
My heart opened the arms
I wasn't a barbarian nomore

And war arrived

And here we are tonight.