Amnésie sur le lac de Constance [English translation]

I looked for you on the wind,

on the sea too.

I looked for you in Beijing

but you were gone.

A few billion people

don't know, don't know anything

A few billion humans

aren't, aren't anything.

Silicon-based

microprocessors

will replace the memory

of men one day.

I'll never forget you.

The words of love, words of war

and of indifference

will be drowned in the waters

of Lake Constance.

Amnesia, amnesia

I forgot everything,

the nightmares and beauties

of past values.

Between North and South

the game is being played poorly, that's not right.

The winners have some wrongs,

the losers are dead.

Since we're talking pre-war,

and war is said to be neat,

I'll ride an iron horse

on a long night.

On this Lake Constance frozen with words

and bruised loves,

I'll berth1

before knowing what it all means,

but I'll never forget you.

You're all naked when you live,

and all alone too.

You're all alone and you say

words that you forget.

1. Apparently that's what he sings, but it sounds like a pleonasm and the preposition is surprising, like "accost the land"

• Artist:Yves Simon
• Album:Une vie comme ça (1981)