Fancy [Finnish translation]

I remember it all very well lookin' back

It was the summer that I turned eighteen.

We lived in a one-room, run down shack

on the outskirts of New Orleans.

We didn't have money for food or rent

to say the least we were hard-pressed

when Momma spent every last penny we had

to buy me a dancin' dress.

Momma washed and combed and curled my hair,

then she painted my eyes and lips.

And I stepped into the satin dancin' dress.

It had a split in the side clean up to my hips.

It was red, velvet-trimmed, to fit me good

and standin' back from the lookin' glass

was a woman

where a half grown kid had stood.

"Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down!

Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down.

Lord forgive me for what I do,

But if you want out then it's up to you

Don’t let me down your momma’s gonna help you move uptown."

Momma dabbed a bit of perfume

on my neck and she kissed my cheek

And I saw the tears well up

in her troubled eyes when she started to speak

She looked at our pitiful shack and then

she looked at me and took a ragged breath

Your Pa's run off, and I'm real sick

and the baby's gonna starve to death.

She handed me a heart-shaped locket that said

"To thine own self be true"

and I shivered as I watched a roach crawl across

the toe of my high-heal shoe

It sounded like somebody else who was talkin'

askin', "Momma what do I do?"

Just be nice to the gentlemen, Fancy.

And they'll be nice to you."

"Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down!

Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down.

Lord forgive me for what I do,

But if you want out then it's up to you

Don't let me down,

Your momma’s gonna help you move uptown."

Well that was the last time I saw my momma

The night I left that rickety shack

Cos welfare people came and took the baby.

Momma died and I ain't been back.

But the wheels of fate had started to turn

and for me there was no other way out.

And it wasn't very long till I knew exactly

what my ma had been talkin' 'bout.

I did what I had to do.

But I made myself a solemn vow:

That I was gonna to be a lady someday

though I don't know when or how.

I couldn't see spendin' the rest of my life

with my head hung down in shame.

I might have been born just plain white trash.

but Fancy was my name.

"Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down!

Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down.

It wasn't very long a benevolent man

took me in off the street

And one week later I was pourin' his tea

in a five roomed hotel suite.

Well I've charmed a king, a congressman

and an occasional aristocrat

and I’ve got me a Georgia mansion

and an elegant New York townhouse flat.

Now I ain't done bad

Now in this world there's a lot of self-righteous

hypocrites who call me bad.

And criticize Momma for turning me out

No matter how little we had.

And though I hadn’t had to worry about nothin'

For nigh on fifteen years

I can still hear the desperation

in my poor mommas voice ringin' in my ears.

"Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down!

Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down.

Lord forgive me for what I do,

But if you want out then it's up to you

Don't let me down,

Your momma’s gonna help you move uptown."

(And I think she did it.)

• Artist:Katie Melua
• Album:B-Sides: The Tracks That Got Away (2012)