Au-delà du brouillard [English translation]

Beyond the fog there's still fog

Sometimes I can look into ten thousand years inside!

Beyond the fog there's still fog

Suddenly I remember the time when I was the rising sun

An old stag is surprised to see me pass by

No doubt asking himself whether I'm already dead

At other times, other places, it's someone other than me

He met there

Other winds, other gods

Ghostly figures, wild hordes

In mortal agony, because they've got no hand to clutch

No trace in the river where I once swam with a woman

Where I believed love to be a fire...

Yes, but our dead love

Was nothing but ashes in the wind

And dawn lightens only suppositions

Out of the silence of questions

You build your empire

And to the sand castles

And to the shores carrying away

You always return

You try to be king

You try to be yourself

From laughter to sighs

Yes, in the women's beds

You take and then forget

You forget yourself bit by bit

Before forgetting us

You think you are a lone wolf

When you're only the sheep

With neither flock nor shepherd

Without a conceived

Star

On the street an old man sets out for a meeting

With someone much older, and that's me...

Or maybe you!

The old man sits on a bench

He smokes a dancer

I mean he smokes a Gitane*

Like smoking the time

I talk to him a bit

He answers

We don't understand each other

But we pretend to

Because we both know

That we've got the lady in black in common

Waiting for us

Beyond the fog there's still fog

Inside I sometimes think I were the rising sun

And my dreams cease one by one

With every step

It's one less

Beyond the fog there's still fog

Sometimes I can look into ten thousand years inside!

And I think about the children of our grandchildren

We never had, but whom we'll have tomorrow

If I were in my twenties

But I don't have children

And I'm no longer twenty

So I walk alone

Like an old monarch

Who's got nothing to conquer

When you're on the crest

You can only descend

Or learn how to fly

Beyond the fog!

Beyond the fog

On the street an old man sets out

For a meeting

With someone much older

And this crestfallen one is me