Nés sous la même étoile [English translation]

[Chorus: Akhenaton & Shurik'N]

Life is beautiful, but fate is not

No one is dealt the same cards

The cradle lifts the curtain, numerous are the roads it unveils

Too bad, we weren't born under the same star

Why fortune and misfortune? Why was I born

With empty pockets? Why are his full of cash?

Why did I see my father leave for work in a moped

Right before his in a gray suit and BMW?

Money is a beautiful woman who doesn't marry paupers

Otherwise, why am I here all alone: a groom with no dowry?

Why is it daycare and vacation for him?

For me, it's soccer fields with no goals, no nets

Not even a white line

Why is it horseback-riding for him?

And fights for me? Why cocaine for him? And cops standing guard for me?

Some nights I have to improvise just to eat

Why does he get to feast on salmon and caviar?

Some are born amongst cabbage, others are born in shit

Why does it stink all around me? What? What do you want from me?

Why is it that at his place, Christmas is always sunny?

While at my place, dreams are banished by an ice-cold reality?

And he gets the right to a higher education

Why can't I afford

Their textbooks and notebooks?

Why did I have to drop out of school?

Why didn't he have a little brother to feed? Why did I sell drugs everyday?

Why do I sink deeper while he submits his thesis?

Why do steel cages and golden cages do as they please?

His star shone brighter than mine under the vast sky

Why wasn't I born under the same star?

[Chorus: Akhenaton & Shurik'N]

Life is beautiful, but fate is not

No one is dealt the same cards

The cradle lifts the curtain, numerous are the roads it unveils

Too bad, we weren't born under the same star

Why wasn't I born with the lucky star watching over me like Issa

Hallways full of webs and spit

Cheap chatter worth 2 francs, faggots bowing ahead

Being resigned to growing up without a franc is depressing

Only having a pair of shorts

Not to play toy dirt digger with yogurt jars

It's all right, I'm not mad at anyone, and if my time comes

I will leave as I came

Incandescent adolescent relentlessly resentin' the forbidden fruit

The innocent witnessin' guys getting shot in the street

Is that a childhood? More like trash, yeah

I didn't talk to girls; I threw pies at girlies with pigtails

Pale with fright in front of my father, my sister wore a headscarf

I remember kids at school laughing at her

Let it go, Léa, if we weren't so careful

Not to play with fire, we'd be just like them

But I cried so I'd get the job, like a bum without the drinking

The "I love you"s to my parents, alone in my bed at night

To each their burden; without ambition, life is too long

Writing poems, violently pissing your life away

You're so focused on the freight car, you forget about the engine

It's not the color that matters, but the bank account

I say what I think even if no one cares

I wouldn't be this way were I born rich

[Chorus: Akhenaton & Shurik'N]

Life is beautiful, but fate is not

No one is dealt the same cards

The cradle lifts the curtain, numerous are the roads it unveils

Too bad, we weren't born under the same star

• Artist:IAM
• Album:L'École du micro d'argent