Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel

Mon Enfance Lyrics English translation

Lyrics

Jacques Brel - Mon Enfance

Mon enfance passa
De grisailles en silences
De fausses révérences
En manque de batailles
L'hiver j'étais au ventre
De la grande maison
Qui avait jeté l'ancre

Au nord parmi les joncs
L'été à moitié nu
Mais tout à fait modeste
Je devenais indien
Pourtant déjà certain
Que mes oncles repus
M'avaient volé le Far West

Mon enfance passa
Les femmes aux cuisines
Où je rêvais de Chine
Vieillissaient en repas
Les hommes au fromage
S'enveloppaient de tabac
Flamands taiseux et sages

Et ne me savaient pas
Moi qui toutes les nuits
Agenouillé pour rien
Arpégeais mon chagrin
Au pied du trop grand lit
Je voulais prendre un train
Que je n'ai jamais pris
Jacques Brel - Mon Enfance - http://motolyrics.com/jacques-brel/mon-enfance-lyrics-english-translation.html
Mon enfance passa
De servante en servante
Je m'étonnais déjà
Qu'elles ne fussent point plantes
Je m'étonnais encore
De ces ronds de famille
Flânant de mort en mort

Et que le deuil habille
Je m'étonnais surtout
D'être de ce troupeau
Qui m'apprenait à pleurer
Que je connaissais trop
J'avais L'œil du berger
Mais le cœur de l'agneau

Mon enfance éclata
Ce fut l'adolescence
Et le mur du silence
Un matin se brisa
Ce fut la première fleur
Et la première fille

La première gentille
Et la première peur
Je volais je le jure
Je jure que je volais
Mon cœur ouvrait les bras
Je n'étais plus barbare

Et la guerre arriva
Et nous voilà ce soir

English translation

Jacques Brel - My Childhood (English translation)

My childhood passed
In silent greyness
In false respectfulness
In a lack of battles.
In the winter, I was held in the belly
Of the large house
That had thrown the anchor
To the north amid the seagrass mats

In the summer, half-naked
but always modest
I would become an Indian
Somehow already certain
That my smug uncles
Had stolen the Far West from me.

My childhood passed
With women in the kitchen
Where I would dream of China
Getting older around the table
The men eating cheese,
Envelopped in clouds of tobacco
Taciturn, intelligent Flemish men
Who didn't know about me
Me, who, every night
Would kneel down for nothing
Increasing my unhappiness
At the foot of the too-big bed.
I wanted to get on a trainJacques Brel - Mon Enfance - http://motolyrics.com/jacques-brel/mon-enfance-lyrics-english-translation.html
That I had never taken.

My childhood passed
Going from one servant to another
I was already surprised
That they never stayed the same
I was surprised again
By all the family circles
How easily they went from one death to another
And by the formal mourning.
I was surprised through all of it
To be one of this flock
That taught me to cry
This flock that I knew too well.
I had the eye of a shepherd
But the heart of a sheep

And then my childhood burst open
That was adolescence
And the wall of silence
tumbled down one morning.
This was the first flower
And the first girl
The first gentleness
And the first fear.
I was flying, I swear
I swear that I was flying
My heart was opening its arms
I was no longer a barbarian

And then the war arrived.

And here we are tonight.

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