Marie-Jeanne [English translation]

It was the fourth of June, the sun had been beating down since the morning

I busied myself with the grapes and my brother loaded the hay

And the lunch hour arrived, we returned home

And our mother yelled from the kitchen: "Wipe your feet on the doormat!"

Then she told us that she had some news from Bourg-les-Essonnes:

This morning Marie-Jeanne Guillaume had thrown herself off the Garonne bridge

And my father says to my mother while passing us the plate of gratin:

"That Marie-Jeanne, she wasn't very smart, pass me the bread".

There are still two hectares to work in the cane field."

And mom says: "You see, when I think of it, it was stupid even for that poor Marie-Jeanne."

On says that nothing good ever comes from Bourg-les-Essonnes.

And there you have it that Marie-Jeanne Guillaume would throw herself from the Garonne bridge."

And my brother says that he remembers when he, and I, and the older Nicolas

put a frog down Marie-Jeanne's back one night at the cinema

And he told me: "You remember, you talked to her this Sunday near the church

Give me a bit more wine, life is truly unfair

Say, I saw her at the sawmill yesterday at Bourg-les-Essonnes

And today Marie-Jeanne threw herself from the Garonne bridge."

Mom finally told me: "My son, you don't have much appetite

I cooked all morning, and you haven't touched a thing, you haven't taken anything

Tell me, the young vicar's sister passed by in a car

She told me that she will come to dinner on Sunday... oh! by the way,

She says that she saw a boy who looked like you at Bourg-les-Essonnes

And he and Marie-Jeanne were throwing something from the Garonne bridge"

A whole year passed, we don't talk about Marie-Jeanne at all anymore

My brother who got married bought a store with his wife

The flu came to our house and my father died in January

Since then mom no longer wants to do much, she is always tired

And me, from time to time, I go pick some flowers near Essonnes

And I throw them in the muddy water from the top of Garonne bridge

• Artist:Joe Dassin
• Album:Les deux mondes de Joe Dassin (1967)