Il y avait un jardin [English translation]

(spoken)

This is a song for the children

Who are born and who lives between steel

And bitume between concrete and asphalt

And who might never know

That the earth was a garden.

There was a garden that we called the earth

It shined under the sun like a forbidden fruit

No it was not paradise nor hell

nor something already seen or heard.

There was a garden, a house, trees

With a little bed of foam to make love on it

And a little creek rolling without any wave

Came to refresh it and went on his course.

There was a garden as big as a valley

We could feed ourselves in every season

On the hot land or on the frozen grass

And discover flowers that didn't have name.

There was a garden that we called the earth

It was big enough for millions of kids

It was once inhabited by our grand-fathers

Who kept it from their grand-parents.

Where is this garden where we could have been born,

Where we could have lived carefree and naked?

where is this house with all its doors open

That I still look for and that I no longer find?

• Artist:Georges Moustaki