À l'origine [English translation]

In the beginning we weren't savages

In the beginning we didn't live behind bars

At the first sign the hostages were freed

In the beginning we didn't show off

In the beginning we didn't have our legacies

With ten cents we weren't so fickle

God

God

God it's far

In the beginning we weren't slaves

In the beginning we never left our enclaves

From the beginning life was just a single obscure phrase we didn't step right on the gas

Mandarines tasted like beetroot

City-dwellers, we waited in the cave

Better

Better

Better than okay

In the beginning, we didn't have artificial limbs

In the beginning we had less idle chatter

In the beginning we had less facets

Less factory time

And no need for prophets

In the beginning chicks were nuggets

And no factory

And the puppets' dolls,

God

God

God it's far

In the beginning we didn't have the bangs

From rifles

But bangs of bed hair

In the dressing room

We didn't hide the bodies

In the beginning we weren't so sinister

In the beginning we didn't have images

The newswomen still gave massages

Better

Better

It's better than nothing

I don't know if we were the worst

And if already we were dreaming of ending it all

In the beginning everything was just a mystery

No nutcases

From the past uprising

In the beginning we didn't pass messages

To our neighbours we didn't blackmail

In the canteen there wasn't any soup

Rifles, messengers in passing,

At Colombine there's going to be carnage

At the highest peaks

There were only clouds

God

God

God it's far

In the beginning we weren't bargains

In the beginning we didn't have ukases1

In the beginning, we didn't pay attention to details

In the beginning we weren't just cattle

In the beginning we didn't take chunks out of each other

Gangling we didn't open the gashes,

Place

Place

Commonplace

In the beginning we weren't wretched

In the beginning we didn't hack the line

In the beginning there were less words

Between the lines we were a lot less stable

In the beginning there was no Mossad

Let's admit it, we weren't so bad-tempered

God

God

God it's far

In the beginning we were scared of anthrax

From the hunger, from the family of Karl Marx

In the beginning there was no Rolex

No Longines, we had powered bikes

In the beginning things weren't so complicated

In the beginning everything was just a pretext

Believe me it's next to nothing

I don't know

If we were the same

Or even worse

How will it finish

In the beginning

There was just a sigh

And no light in your wax doll

1. A decree with the force of the law in tsarist Russia. Apparently.

• Artist:Benjamin Biolay
• Album:À l'origine (2005)