Juillet 1998 [English translation]

Friday 5th July, 10:57pm

I go down the street in the heat of the night

A lot of people, a lot of noise

A light breeze of warm air goes through my t-shirt and glides over my skin

It feels like the caresses of a shy teenager

The pavements and the road are full, there's everything: whites, Turks, Africans Indians, Albanians, Pakistanis

Down-and-out people, undermined people, pretty girls

I come across an older woman and I tell myself I would like to try one time not to die an idiot*

I keep moving among the grocers, pay phones, the seedy kebab houses

The posters of the latest internationally unknown singer and the trendy bars

Where I've never quite known how to behave but it's okay if some people there are comfortable.

Well it's good

It smells like cumin and saffron, spilt beer, cigarettes, grilled meat

It feels like summer, the real one that repairs and already I have to rush into the station

It's doesn't matter, tonight nothing can touch me

In the tunnels, no big surprise, that suspicious smell and that unnecessary poster

For an obscure film which will surely be a flop, an XXX comedy

The umpteenth tour of a group of old musicians with dyed hair

For the shows of young comics, who in theory are not funny

For clothes brands worn by girls who have the look of people with daddy issues

And a campaign for the mobility which will raise awareness for perhaps nobody but a rather cute actress

And there I meet again those two slender girls who are holding hands

It's exactly the same ones who I saw near my uncle's place yesterday

I find it touching and strange

As much as this enormous Guinean at the end of the platform who yells with a metallic voice like a fucking Tibetan horn

A drop of dirty water falls from the Eiffel beams, whose paint blisters

It landed in my drink, it's disgusting but I don't have time to swear

I hear the roar of the train in the distance

Tonight nothing can touch me, I'm floating above the ground, the planets are aligned

In the train a Kosovan, who plays a weird trumpet-violin

I wonder what life he had before while he livens up my journey and a group of Americans' beside me

They look a bit lost with their bland appearance like a big baby of the future

I arrive at my change, I pass by the vendors selling cigarettes illegally

Who do the rounds, who shout, almost all day

It frightened me sometimes when I was a kid and we'd just Arrived in the neighbourhood with my mum and brothers but Now it's ok, now it's cool

I walk towards the elevated platform and each time I'm there, strangely, I think about this girl with who I made love to for the first time

She lived just next door

I'd been told she was a bit of a slut but actually, not so much

It had been a lovely night

I let my thoughts drift where they want

Noticing with satisfaction the pleasure gained from rolling the Images and the words like pearl necklaces

But I don't forget that I've got to make songs

In any case, nothing can touch me tonight, I'm floating above the ground, the planets are aligned

I'm 27, almost 28

It's crazy how the time flies

I'm 27, almost 28

And I could tell myself that the best years are behind me

I'm 27, almost 28

However, I have no regrets

I'm 27, almost 28

And tonight I feel like it's '98

I exit and there's still the heat outside

I move under the arch of the chestnut trees which act as an arbour~

I would go in the shops close by

Around those guys, not bad guys but a little smug

Place my fingers on an instrument but it's closed and also, I have to keep moving

Suddenly, an outburst from I don't know where, Malian musical genre but sung in Spanish or maybe Indian folk

A thing I've never heard anyway, but I like it

It seems like Dear Prudence, there are round and mate and asynchronous drums^

It doesn't interest many of the idle blédards who lie around in the path>

No one stops, they are going to enjoy themselves, it gets confused

There's been a new smell in the air for some time now

A scent of the apocalypse

I find myself thinking that the decline has arrived, that this is it for us

But despite everything, I'm not so worried, after all everything must end

We have the resources, we're not the last ones, we'll manage, anyway

I came to the end of the terminus building, I have to go up

Tonight nothing can touch me, I'm floating above the ground, the planets are aligned

I'm 27, almost 28

It's crazy how the time flies

I'm 27, almost 28

And I could tell myself that the best years are behind me

I'm 27, almost 28

However, I have no regrets

I'm 27, almost 28

And tonight I feel like it's '98

• Artist:Fauve ≠
• Album:Vieux frères – Partie 2 (2015)