She was 17
(Elle avait 17 ans)
Jean-Jacques Goldman
What are you dreaming of ? Come back on earth
So it is, no other way
You'll have to understand
Each day its work
After all we did for you
At your age, we didn't complain
Excess everywhere is a flaw
You don't have all you need ?
It should be forbidden
All those words sharp as a knife
Antidotes against life, against envy
What is her illness ?
She was seventeen, she had so many
Dreams to live
And so little fancy for dreaming like those old people
Who kill the time
They no longer have, sitting on benches
She was seventeen
She went adrift, upside down
Far away from the established verities,
She said : who will live, will see.
And I'll live,
You will see.
Be suspicious with your friends
In life no feeling
One do not live with if-sentences
There are winners and losers
You've got too much imagination
Stay on earth
You'll have to deal with it
Wait, shut up, who do you think you are ?
She was seventeen
She handled life as a book she
Began with the end
She did not want to choose
So that she'd never have to give up anything
She was seventeen
Without key, without luggage
She wanted to make her hours dance
The rhythm of her impatiences
In front of so much voracity
What could I have done ?
In front of so much violent innocence
I had no little chance.
Translation of Vanessa Barba
Other translations :
Elle avait 17 ans
(original text in french)