Chêne et Roseau [English translation]

The Reed is frail

Head halfway in the water

And the Oak standing upright

Seems to be above everything

The Reed bends his knees

And collapses from all the blows

For it’s his destiny

Always falling again

Fall,

Fall to get back up

Fall again

Fall to get back up

“Even if the oak is giant

he cracks in the hurricane

Me, the Reed, in bad times

I dance with the wind”

The Oak is a great wise man

Who isn’t afraid of storms

He knows that the hurricane

Doesn’t turn up often

And he looks down on

His poor friend the Reed

Who fights relentlessly

To get back up

Always

Get back up to fall

Like always

Get back up to fall

“The Reed in agony

Tossed around by the wind

Me, the Oak, in bad times

I only expose one side”

There’s no moral

In this common story

Of individuals

And different points of view

To comfort ourselves a little

We put down our neighbor

We need to get back up

Before falling

Fall

Fall and we get up

Fall again

Fall and we get up

Each in our own solitude

Cultivate our certainties

By instinct to survive

Reassure our lives