La Nuit Je Mens [English translation]

One seen me in the Vercors1

Do Bungee jumping

Amphora thief"2

At creeks bottom

I courted morays3

I made love; I played the dead

You weren't born

At the seaside resort4

You needn't be prayed for,

I was a horsehair glove5, geyser

For a little, I was soaking

Water Story6

At night I lie7

I take trains across the plain8

At night I lie

Of that, I wash my hands9

In my boots, I've got a questions mountain10

Where your echo remains

Where your echo remains

I made the season

In this cranial box

Your thoughts

I made them mine

To grab you only to grab you11

From stage to stage12

I made dance so many misunderstandings13

So many miles of life in pink14

A day at the circus

Another to try to please you15

Rough boys trainer16

Aqueduct blaster17

At night I lie

I take trains across the plain

At night I lie

Brazenly

In my boots, I've got a questions mountain

Where your echo still remains

Where your echo still remains

One seen me in the Vercors

Do Bungee jumping

Amphora thief

At creeks bottom

I courted morays

I made love; I played dead

You weren't born

At night I lie

I take trains across the plain

At night I lie

Of that, I wash my hands

In my boots, I've got a questions mountain

Where your echo still remains

Where your echo still remains

At night I lie

I take trains across the plain

At night I lie

Of that, I wash my hands

In my boots, I've got a questions mountain

Where your echo still remains

Where your echo still remains...

1. The Vercors is a French mountain range. The Vercors has two meanings here: the massacre of the resistance fighters that had taken refuge in the Vercors maquis in 1944 -> Massacre of Vassieux-en-Vercors in July 1944. And "Vercors" is also the name of resistance of the writer Jean Bruller during WW2 who wrote "The silence of the sea", an ode to rebellion, patriotism, and resistance in the midst of the war and distributed "under wraps".2. "Amphora thief at creeks bottom" is an allusion to the efforts deployed by the Third Reich with aplomb and sometimes helped by Gestapists to plunder and appropriate certain archaeological remains of other cultures all over the world and thus invent the myth of "Aryans" (At night, I lie brazenly ...again). But it's of course also a metaphor of the head victim plunged up to the shoulder in water and which gives to the part submerged in water, the appearance of an amphora for the one who looks at the scene (the torturer leaning over the victim) from the outside.

When he says just before, "You needn't to be prayed for" it is said in the sense "you denounced people under my tortures".3. "I courted morays"; moray eels produce electricity (still an allegory to torture).4. The "seaside resort" is of course a very cynical metaphor to the bathroom. But it's also a reference to Vichy the city (which is also a balneotherapy resort) and which was the seat of government of Marshal Pétain of "Free France" who collaborated with the German authorities5. "I was a horsehair glove, geyser" here the singer makes an analogy with the French expression: "caresser dans le sens du poil" (caress in the direction of the hair) which means "to flatter", to go in the direction of what a person says, confirm his/her opinion to please him/her, to seduce him/her. But this glove made for massaging the skin when taking a bath can become very abrasive if used more intensively. (See the explanation below on “A day at the circus, another to try to please you” which is complementary to this one)

So it's an allusion to the tortures inflicted on resistance fighters by the French Gestapo to make them speak (the torture of the plank - wooden bord). Because you had to put your hand on the person's lower back and go up the hand to the top of this person's spine to tilt the wooden board forward. It's why there's the word "geyser" just after -> A geyser is a source characterized by an intermittent discharge of water ejected in a turbulent way and accompanied by steam -> here we must therefore see the metaphor of water splashing in all directions caused by the victim's head plunged violently in the bathtub, and later pop the head out after a while which still creates another spray and splashing water (swing system hence the analogy with the massage with a horsehair glove because the prisoner was naked and the torturer's hand went up or down along his spine to tilt him back and forth and vice versa) which creates yet another jet and splash of water -> intermittent jets, geyser.6. reference to "Story of Ô" 70s French erotic movie. "Histoire d'Ô" deals with sadomasochism. It's the journey of a woman - "Ô" is her name in the movie - who learns all along with the movie by experiencing different situations (humiliation, submission) and undergoing various hardships (physical suffering inflicted by her "masters" and torturer) that you have to be submitted yourself to become a good submitter -> So to become such a terrible torturer during the war and to have so little scruples, and even to experience it as revenge, is that we have suffered a lot in our childhood. (Fighting dogs become extremely mean from being hit and mistreated by their owners for example), cause "eau" (water) sounds the same as "Ô" in the French title of the movie "Histoire d'Ô", it's a words game so. Here again, it's an allusion to the torture of the plank (a person was tied face down on a plank and was tilted headfirst into a bathtub filled with water to make the person speak and tell everything that this person know).7. The title "At night, I lie" take its source to the novel by Jean-Louis Curtis "The forests of the night" (Prix Goncourt 1947) tells about the life during the 39-45 war of a small town on the "Gave de Pau" crossed by the "Line of Demarcation", and of the thorny issue of Resistance and collaboration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forests_of_the_Night8. "I take trains" (a metaphor about Jewish deportee trains) - "across the plain" is a reference to the song "Le chant des partisans" which was the song of resistance fighters during the war9. "Of that, I wash my hands" (Pontius Pilate). Although Poncius Pilate is the best-attested governor of Judaea, few sources on his rule have survived. He appears to have belonged to the well-attested Pontii family of Samnite origin (Jewish), but nothing is known for certain about his life before he became governor of Judea, nor of the circumstances that led to his appointment to the governorship.

The Christian Gospels record that Pontius Pilate ordered the crucifixion of Jesus at some point during his tenure; Josephus and the Roman historian Tacitus also seem to have recorded this information. Ponce Pilate has often been the subject of artistic representations. Medieval art frequently depicts scenes of Pontius Pilate and Jesus, often in the scene where he washes his hands of guilt for Jesus' death. In the art of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Pontius Pilate is often depicted as a Jew.

Its characterization in the works where he's represented varies considerably: the evil person demanded the crucifixion of Jesus. He'd be the instigator of the trial and the applicator of the sentence. On the other hand, it refers to the crucifixion of Jesus which, according to the Christian Gospels, was led by the Jews to Pontius Pilate, then prefect of Rome to ask him for the condemnation of Christ. He'd have pronounced "It's thus the decision of the people, I wash my hands of it", hence the popular expression: "to wash hands of it" then diverted and commonly used to designate any action of the disinterestedness of something, to turn away from it without feeling guilty.

The argument was used a lot in Hitler's propaganda, it was one of the main reasons given by the Nazi regime to demonstrate the guilt of the Jews, who ordered the assassination of Jesus. And thus try to rally the other churches to its cause (including the Catholic Church) and thus validate the extermination of the Jews while being able to get rid of it "with a peaceful mind", it's for a good cause.10. "In my boots, I've got a questions mountain" (again a ref. to German boots, Vercors mountains and torture)11. "T'accaparer seulement t'accaparer" (To grab you only to grab you) is another game words (play of words) in French cause it can be heard phonetically as "t'as qu'à parer seulement, t'as qu'à parer" ("tu n'as qu'à parer seulement" in literal French) which can be traduced by "you only have to parry (blows)"12. "From stage to stage" (D'estrades en estrades) could also be understood as "from plank to plank" (wooden boards) - "Estrade" in French = Plancher de bois "a wood floor" ("plancher" come from word "planche" - plank - in French) raised above the ground the most often used as a stage for shows or meetings, etc.13. "I made dance so much misunderstanding" is like: I danced on so much of: "misheard (...repeat!)" The singer always plays with both sides of himself, of his own role in these bad times cause "malentendus" and "mal entendu" sounds the same in French.14. "So many miles of life in pink" The song that made Piaf famous internationally was "La Vie En Rose" (Life in pink), released when Paris was liberated from German occupation. The song, about love found, was about hope for the millions emerging from the horrors of war.15. “A day at the circus, another to try to please you” refers to the “good cop / bad cop” technique which is a psychological tactic used in negotiation and interrogation. The "good cop / bad cop" tactic involves a team of two interrogators who seemingly take an opposite approach (the bad and the good) to the interviewee and can switch roles at will in order to destabilize the interviewee and make him/her talk. (This allegory, therefore, complements the one explained just above)16. "Rough boys trainer, aqueduct blaster": Here "trainer" is employed in sense of "beast trainer" and "loulou(s)" in French is the diminutive commonly used to designate a "loubard" (yob, hooligan), in other words, "tough guys" (because the Nazi regime had ordered the release of the most dangerous French criminals to enlist them in their Gestapo with all the rights to achieve their goal, the intelligence, and extermination of the Jews, including the right to torture and the license to kill. It was, so to speak, the roles of cop and thugs reversed. Indeed, the French authorities were ordered to place themselves under their authority if necessary and without discussion). The term aqueduct comes from the Latin "aqua" which means water, and "ducere" which means to lead. Thus, literally, it designates any pipe intended to transport water (but also all sources of information if it's taken figuratively because a pipe can be underground).17. It also refers of course, by the opposition, to the resistance fighters responsible for blowing up certain bridges and aqueducts just before and during the Allied landings in 1944.

• Artist:Alain Bashung
• Album:Fantaisie militaire