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

In order to let mom rest

I do the shopping very often

and in the kitchen

I clean up, I wash, I wipe

occasionaly I also do stiching

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 very special number

that ends completely naked

after a 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 go out to eat with friends

of all sexes

in some smoking bar

And there we'll give in to heart's joy

and without complexes

unravel the truths

about the people who lapidate them

on the nose

But we're doing it with humour

dressing it with wordplays

full of acid

Upon meeting stragglers

who walk and wave (womanlike)

to entertain their tables

imitating what they think we are

and they cover themselves up, the poor fools

It's ridiculous

to gesture and speak loudly

to play the divas, the tenors

it's stupid

Me the mocks, the gibes

leave me cold because it's true

I am a man, oh!

As they say

The time the new day is born

I go back to find again my lot

of solitude

I take off my eyelashes and my wig

like a poor miserable clown

in lassitude

I lie down but I don't sleep

I think of my loves without joy

so ridiculous

of this boy beautiful like a god

who without doing anything has set the fire

in my memory

My mouth will never dare

tell him my sweet secret

my tender drama

because the object of my torments

passes most of his time

in bed with women

Noone has really the right

to blame me, to judge me

and I specified

that this is very well the nature that

is solely responsible that

I am a man, oh!

As they say

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