Happy Birthday [English translation]

Happy birthday,

That’s not because you’re alone that you don’t have the right to dance

To drink champagne for your own health

To turn on the lights everywhere and to repeat to yourself: life, life is beautiful

Happy birthday,

My cake is nice, this year a little smaller

And has more candles, and I’m going to have a diner by candlelight

in a nice company: the announcer is beautiful this evening

Last year we were you and me

This year you’re absent at my party

And I dance without a partner

A dance that doesn’t finish

Happy birthday

That’s not because you’re lonely that you don’t have the right to talk

About the good weather and about the snow*, about birthdays

So distant from the ones to come, from which you cannot escape

Happy birthday

I made myself a present: a jacket you didn’t like and a notebook for all my romantic dates

With you, why not, if you’ll return to our place one day

Last year we were you and me

This year you’re absent at my party

And I dance without a partner

A dance that doesn’t finish

• Artist:Joe Dassin
• Album:15 ans déjà (1979)