Né en 17 à Leidenstadt [English translation]

(Refrain)

If I 'd been born in 1917 in Leidenstadt

On top of ruins, in a battlefield

Would I have behaved better of worse than those people

If I'd been German?

Born into humiliation, hatred and ignorance

Fed on dreams of revenge

Would I have been one of those unlikely beings with a conscience

Like some teardrops in the midst of a flood?

If I'd grown up in the docklands of Belfast

Soldier of a faith, of a class

Would I have had the strength to withstand and fight against my Own kind: to betray, to hold out a hand in friendship?

If I'd been born white and rich in Johannesburg

Between the power and the fear

Would I have heard the cries carried by the wind?

Nothing will be like it was before.

One never knows what one really has in one's guts,

Hidden behind our appearances

The soul of a brave man, an accomplice, an executioner?

The worst or the best?

Would we be one of those who resist or just those who follow like sheep

If it was a question of more than just words?

(Refrain)

If I 'd been born in 1917 in Leidenstadt

On top of ruins in a battlefield

Would I have behaved better of worse than those

If I'd been German?