A la gare de Perpignan [English translation]

At the, at the Perpignan* Station

There's a train that turns back time

When it comes away from the edge of the ponds

Away from the summers of yesteryear

I find myself in the Paris carriage

Already there's the Louvre, the Tuileries**

There's also my family

On the platform

Very well-behaved

But speechless

2

Casually

At the Austerlitz Station***

I know well

I won't go to the Ritz

And I say to myself

Here it's much bigger

Than the Perpignan Station

You'll have to pay your own way, my friend

Go to work, so that you'll be happy one day

And come back, who knows, with a happy heart

At the Perpignan Station

3

A whirlwind of time, the years pass by

Memories, but not all them are faded

Because the dreams, the dreams stay hidden away

Yes, they are blossoming relentlessly

Thirty-two years have gone by fast

At the moment we're even and I know

That I prefer the sweetness of my old spring days

To the train that turns back time

4

Perpignan, Perpignan in your station

Young people leave for the fight

Less young ones get off there, delighted

Hoping to relive their life

But life,

It doesn't restart itself

Day and night

It passes step by step

Towards the last train we take

To the Perpi-Gnan Station

• Artist:Charles Trenet
• Album:1973