Ma petite entreprise [English translation]

My small company

Doesn't know crisis.

Flourishing, it shows off

Silky treasures

Golden as desired.

I order an expertise

But the truth's wearing me out,

Tirelessly reveals itself.

And my fingers to palpate, 1

Palpate there this epidermis

That makes me stand up,

That makes me work

The Monday,

The Tuesday,

The Wednesday,

The Thursday,

The Friday,

From dawn to dawn,

Part of the morning,

And for vacations;

Abstinence.

My small company,

My locomotive

Goes on in defiance of semaphores,2

Pulls me out of nothingness.

Whatever

Love matters

Whatever

Love is exported

Whatever

Door to door

In Crimea,

South of Burma,

Lobbies in Libya,

In Laos,

Asia flows to my ears.

My small company

Doesn't know crisis,

Expose itself to the firmament,

Suggest the return-to-work,

Hiring,

De-hiring,3

Tirelessly reveals itself.

And my fingers to palpate,

Palpate there this epidermis

That makes me row

That makes me knock

At each level

Staircase C

Building B

At the edge of his/her/its lips4

Whatever

Love matters

Whatever

Love is exported

I'm losing the north

At Cape Horn

When I see coming up

The pyramids

Nose to nose

My whims

Asia flows to my ears

My small company

Doesn't know the crisis

Flourishing, it shows off

Silky treasures

Golden as desired.

The Monday,

The Tuesday,

The Wednesday,

The Thursday,

The Friday,

From dawn to dawn,

1. Palpate: I deliberately kept the term "palpate" used by the author because regardless of its primary definition which involves touching of a person to examine (as a doctor would do with a patient for example) with skin contact. But also like a leather-worker feels the skins to estimate their quality (the first meaning of the song). it's necessary also to know that there's a very popular slang expression in France: "Palper de la monnaie" which means "to collect money", "win a lot of money".2. semaphores is a linguistic "pretty much" (an "à-peu-près" in French), a kind of word game shifted by phonetics between "semaphore" and "serre-moi fort" (hold me tight). But it's also an ancient slang word used in old French to designate the police and more particularly their flashing lights. A "semaphore" in French is a post established on the coast, making it possible to communicate by optical signals with ships, a kind of coastal lighthouse so (for militaries). If we, therefore, combine here the shape of a lighthouse and the roughly "hold me tight" (sémaphore - serre-moi fort) at the same time, the allegory reveals all its power when now we know the hidden meaning of the song (If you want to know the hidden meaning of this song, please read the explanations I give a little further down the page, below these lyrics.), does it? :)3. De-hiring (débaucher, licencier in French): Here author wisely uses the word "débauche" which in French may as well mean "dismiss", "fired" (fired by its company for professional misconduct for example) in sense of "lay off" than to signify "debauchery".

In French "débauche" works the same for both.4. "ses" (her/his/its) is plural possessive adjective. In French, it doesn't have a gender. Or rather, it has all genders. It will therefore be feminine if it's of a woman in question or masculine in case of a man or be indefinite if it's an object, thing, etc. (here narrator doesn't precise).

• Artist:Alain Bashung
• Album:Chatterton (1994)