Petite Fable [English translation]

Alarmed mothers, be not anxious anymore,

I desert the ranks of hunters of little nymphs.

I will no more go to school-exits to seek out

Teenagers, who sometimes take me as their idol.

There always will be gentlemen with a rose

Willing to be troubled by those sweet girls,

Who, smarter than their helpless mothers,

Know so well to seduce, while forgetting to love.

Above all don't believe that it's for their fresh flesh

That I went after those fruits with a skin of peach.

I had sense and a taste to teach.

It also pleased me to be the first.

Sometimes I abused, I admit, their foolishness.

Not always I was the willing victime.

In these games you win and you lose just as much

And the injury lasts a more or less long time.

Alarmed mothers, be not anxious anymore,

I desert the ranks of hunters of little nymphs.

No doubt I will still have some nostalgia,

A remnant of regret, but it's all thought out.

I give up loving these charming persons

Their springtimes made me forget my autumns.

Youth is not a matter of season.

I have finally reached the age of reason.

I say farewell to folly, it's time to be wise,

To join the ranks of those of the second age.

Ladies, it is to you that my eyes turn,

Would you please excuse me, if I am late.

But in this moment, that I put my heart in quarantine

I would like to salute Mr. de la Fontaine.

The grapes are sour, when you cannot touch them.

And if this isn't true, that can make a fable

And my song was nothing but a fable.

• Artist:Georges Moustaki
• Album:1976