Mes longs voyages [English translation]

When I leave the old country

That are my shipwrecks

When I enter the new country

That is your face

Then I will close my eyes

And wake up

My crews

My long journeys

When I was the wolf's son

Barefoot, no leash hung around my neck

When I was the wind's son

Student, dealer

When I was at the girls' house

Mad prince, without a family

When someone broke

My jawbone

And when I ran away with my bruises

Into the depths of the continent

To avoid the iron

Of my brothers, of mankind

I'll tell you of the times

When I was the heir

Of the castle of the deaf king

Who, from the back of his courtyard,

Cried for me to sing

Cried for me to praise

His rhymes and his crimes

Afterward, he tortured me

Afterward, he awarded me medals

Throughout my life, living

In an illusion, miss

With my frail wings

Strong as a kite

I was a great cloud

The blue sails, at large

Which you can't cage

Which you harpoon, laughing

The letters and the books

The flights, the writings

The spell book, the Jesuits

The fairs, the pears, the oysters

The glories and all the rest

The parasitic thief

Right on my heels

Right on my talents

Slashing my successes

With great blows of his pencil

Hating me since birth

Cornering me, judging me

Ensnaring me, hurting me

Killing me

But up there, above them

I was up there, in a red star

Pulling faces at them

Because it was blood, mine

And yours came too

All those paths

To get to you

To get there panting

Where were you, my soul

In that happy time of misery

And wind?

Now I sit down

And live with you

Who deigned mix you age

With mine

From it will come a link

That will avenge me

By standing very close to the men

False or real

Which I didn't do

But most of all, standing very close to her mother

Which I should have done since you've been waiting for me

Now I am here

If I leave tomorrow, hold me back

Join me, if I die

We will go and live somewhere else

• Artist:Félix Leclerc