Comme ils disent [English translation]

I live alone with mom

in a very old appartment

on Sarasate Street

For keeping me company I have

a turtle, two canaries

and a cat

to let mom rest

very often, I go to the market

and the kitchen

I arrange, I wash, I wipe

occasionally, I also stitch

on the sewing machine

Work doesn't scare me

I'm a little of a decorator

a little of a stylist

but my real job is at night.

that I practice cross dressed:

I'm an artist

I have a very special issue

that ends in complete nudity

after strip-tease

and in the hall I see that

the guys can't believe their eyes.

I am a man, oh!

As they say

About three o'clock in the morning

we'll eat with friends

all the sexes

in an ordinary smoking bar

and there we give in to heart's joy

and without complexes

we unwrap the truths

about the people who take in without effort

we have them stoned

But we're doing it with humour

dressing in with puns

wet with acid

we meet the retarded

who for impressing their tables

walk and wave

mimicking what they think we are

and they cover themselves, the poor fools

the ridiculousness

of the gesture and loud speaking

of playing divas, the leaders

the stupidity

me, the gibes, the jests

leave me cold because it's true

I am a man, oh!

As they say

At the time when a new day is born

I return to find my lot

of solitude

I take off my eyelashes and my wig

like a poor unhappy clown

of weariness

I lie down but I don't sleep

I think of my loves without joy

so paltry

of this boy beautiful like a god

who without doing anything has set the fire

in my memory

my mouth will never dare

confess to him my sweet secret

my tender drama

because the object of all my torments

passes the greater part of his time

in bed with women

nobody has right to the truth

of blaming me, of judging me

and I precisely say

that it is the nature that

is solely responsible if

I am a man, oh!

As they say

• Artist:Charles Aznavour
• Album:Idiote je t'aime (1972)