Le France [English translation]

When I think of the old English lady

that was called the Queen Mary,

as she lays beached so far away from her cliffs

on a wharf in California1

When I think of the old English lady,

I envy the submerged wrecks,

liners that were chasing a dream

and never saw their country again.

Don't ever call me France again,

France has just left me in the lurch

Don't ever call me France again,

this is my last will.

I was a gigantic ship,

able to cruise for a thousand years.

I was a giant, I was nearly,

nearly as strong as the ocean.

I was a gigantic ship,

I carried thousands of lovers.

I was France. What remains of it?

A perch for seagulls2

Don't ever call me France again,

France has just left me in the lurch

Don't ever call me France again,

this is my last will.

When I think of the old English lady

that was called the Queen Mary,

as she lays beached so far away from her cliffs

on a wharf in California.

Let the mightiest warship3

be brave enough to sink me,

while i'll show my ass to Saint-Nazaire4,

in the land of Britanny where I was born.

Don't ever call me France again,

France has just left me in the lurch

Don't ever call me France again,

this is my last will.

1. the Queen Mary is still today anchored in Long Beach, and can be visited like a museum2. the French makes a pun between "corps-mort" and "cormoran", but a "corps-mort"(lit. "dead-body") is actually a submerged concrete slab used to anchor a buoy3. even at the time the song was written, the French navy had no such things as dreadnoughts or cruisers. A frigate would have had to do, I guess :)4. a port city in French Britanny with major shipyards, where the France was built

• Artist:Michel Sardou
• Album:La Vieille