Pour me rendre à mon bureau [English translation]

To get me to the office I had bought a car,

a nice front-wheel drive that could run like the wind.

That was in July '39, I was all puffed up

with my bourgeois pride in having my own car.

But September came and I was off to the war.

Eight months later, coming back

a request for my small 11HP car,

Nein verboten1 provisionally.

To get me to the office the, I bought a motorised bike,

a pretty moped doing about 25 mph.

Mounted on my banger I was all puffed up

with my bourgeois pride in getting home so quickly.

It used hardly any petrol

but hardly any was still tooo much.

That's when they cancelled my license.

I had to sell my moped.

To get me to the office next I bought a bike,

A very pretty one all nickel-plated with a chain and two keys.

Mounted on top of these tyres I was all puffed up

in my bougeois pride in having a bike of my own.

I had a dozen of them rapidly one after the other,

they were stealing them from me periodically.

As each one cost as much as a Citroën

I was ruined rather quickly.

To get me to the office next I took the metro.

That doesn't cost much and it's warm in the winter.

Alma. Iéna and Marboeuf2 I was all puffed up

in my bourgeois pride on getting home so quickly.

Sadly, to economise on power

several stations were closed.

And then it was, it was the whole entire line

that they shut down mercilessly.

To get me to the office I put two good clodhoppers on

and four times a day I made the journey by foot there and back.

The Tuileries, the Pont-Neuf3; I was puffed up,

proud of suffering my corns for such a lovely view.

Sadly, very soon, I won't have any more shoes,

the cobbler doesn't replace soles any more.

But as a prudent and perspicacious man

I've worked everything out for the future.

Tomorrow I shall learn to stand up on my hands,

I won't go very fast, of course, but I won't use any more footwear.

I'll see the world bottom up, perhaps that's more amusing.

I won't lose anything there, and also:

it's not much fun the right way up.

1. German: No; forbidden2. the tube stations Alma-Marceau, Iéna, and Franklin D Roosevelt (named Marboeuf until it was renamed sometime in 1946), all very close together(three successive stops on metro line 9; Alma is the middle of the three and the distance on foot between the two others via Alma is a little under 1400 meters3. two places in central Paris; the shortest distance on foot to cover the three tube stations previously mentioned and these two places would be 4500 meters.

• Artist:Georges Brassens
• Album:Georges Brassens chante les chansons de sa jeunesse