Le p'tit bonheur [English translation]

It was a small happiness1

I had picked up

It was in tears

On the side of a road

When it saw me passing by

It started shouting:

"Sir, pick me up

Take me home with you

My brothers have forgotten me, I have fallen, I am sick

If you do not pluck me, I will die, what a ballad!

I won't take up much space, gentle and submissive, I promise you

Sir, I'm begging you, free me from this torture"

I took the small happiness

Put in under my rags

I said: "It must not die

Come into my house"

So the little happiness

Got better

At the edge of my heart

There was a song

My days, my nights, my sorrows, my mourning, my pain - they were all forgotten

My life as an unemployed man, I had no desire to start it all over again

When it rained outside, or when my friends caused me grief

I took my small happiness and told it: "It's you who are my queen"

My happiness blossomed

Buds appeared

It was heaven

You could see it on my face

And yet, on some beautiful morning

As I whistled this tune

My happiness left

Without shaking my hand

Even though I begged it, coaxed it, made a scene

Showed it the great hole it was making inside my heart

Still it left, its head held high, with neither joy nor hate

As if it couldn't see the sun from inside my home anymore

I thought I would die

Of sorrow and boredom

I had ceased laughing

It was always night

All I was left with was oblivion

All I was left with was contempt

At last I said to myself:

I still have life

Once more I picked up my stick, my mourning, my sorrows and my rags

And now I wander in sad countries

Now, when I see a fountain or a girl,

I either take the long way around or close my eyes

...I either take the long way around or close my eyes

1. 'Son petit boneur' means 'what makes one happy', but this song is written as if the 'happiness' was a tangible object.

• Artist:Félix Leclerc