Okay, so there's this girl1
Behind a sheet of glass2
She says goodnight and she's gone3
A little music plays4
Over the scrolling names5
And then there's nothing on.6
And I was back there at ten7
For all the bad news again
An hour passed in a blur8
With my desire for her
She left me staring, alone,
At a landscape of snow9
And then there's nothing on.
I’ve got my bud in my ear,10
Local talk radio,
In the middle of a speech.
The time he hopes for is here,
If he happens to emerge,
Outside, above his reach.11
'Cause you can see the fire surge12
Over half of the world
And you wait on the verge,13
Just for the Capricorns.14
After one more glass,15
The stars breathe their last,16
And then there's nothing more (x2)
And then up next, Special Edition, Special Edition17
Living color, on fire,18
With my desire
And then up next, Special Edition, Special Edition
In HD, life-size,19
A wall with her eyes.
And after that, I search
For anyone I know
Who might still be awake.20
I'm not fooling myself,21
At this hour of the night
What you can get, you take.22
It's always hard to sleep,23
With no one by my side,
The silence resonates,
It awaits, I abide,24
“bye goodnight gotta go!”25
I turn face down like the phone,26
And then there's nothing more. (x2)
And then up next, Special Edition, Special Edition
In HD, life-size,
A wall with her eyes.
And then up next, Special Edition, Special Edition
Living color, on fire,
With my desire
When I wake up, the girl
Behind the sheet of glass
Already had her say27
My bud sounds off again28
On another long rant29
He’ll be ranting all day30
But nighttime comes too soon,
What we fear, we avoid.
What change could occur?
Still uneasy with her31
A peaceful afternoon,
A boring afternoon,
And then, up next… (x3)
Special Edition, Special Edition.
1. Lit., "To begin with, there's this girl."2. Lit., "in the glass box," which sounds very dated now, so the translation refers instead to a flat-screen TV.3. Lit., "who says, "Goodnight, till tomorrow.'"4. Lit., "over a bit of music."5. Lit., "some good men, in reverse." I interpret this as a scrolling list of names, the credits at the end of a broadcast.6. Lit., "and afterwards, nothing more." In this context, I instead used "there's nothing on," because it is an English idiom unique to television. It is used when a viewer may have many choices available on TV, but there is nothing available that he wants to watch.7. Changed the time for rhyming purposes, and also because 8 PM seems too early in this context.8. This line is added for the rhyme, and "Elle m'a laissé tout seul" is instead translated two lines below as "She left me staring, alone."9. Lit., "Behind her face, a countryside of snow." In either language, "snow" refers to the display of static on a television tuned to a channel that isn't broadcasting.10. "My bud in my ear" is a pun, with the intention of conveying the double meaning of "my buddy who is talking in my ear," as well as "my earbud" (usually earbuds) for listening to the radio.11. Lit., "above his storage jar, if he happens to see daylight." The idiom faire jour means to surface, to emerge, to see the light of day. Cabrel's meaning is unclear, but son bocal seems to imply that the radio personality is confined by his celebrity, highly visible but trapped inside a glass jar.12. Lit., "Because it seems like there's a fire."13. Lit., "and you're expecting better [than this]."14. "Sagittarians" had too many syllables. In this case, it seems interchangeable with any other Zodiac sign.15. Lit., "one last glass," revised because I've written "last" in the following line.16. Lit., "The breath of the stars." I take this to mean the stars' last breath; in other words, the stars are dying, their lights are going out.17. "Up next" is an idiomatic translation in the specific context of broadcast television, where one program follows another.18. In the early days of color TV in America (late 1960s), programs were advertised as being broadcast "in living color." (The addition of "on fire" is gratuitous, for the rhyme.)19. The idiomatic translation of "en grandeur nature" would just be "life-size." That left three extra syllables to fill, so I added "in HD" (high definition).20. Lit., "who might still be standing."21. Lit., "Don't have to deceive myself."22. Lit., "One doesn't have to be much." More idiomatically, "you take what you can get."23. Lit., "I've found it hard to sleep."24. Lit., "And the silence waits for me, I listen to it resonate."25. Lit., "Time to go, hey, goodnight!" Updated for texting.26. Lit., "The sound when I hang up." Updated for smartphones.27. Lit., "already said hello."28. Lit., "My buddy started again."29. Lit., "on another anger."30. Lit., "in another speech."31. Lit., "But the night comes fast, to those who fear it. There are things we avoid, it's not easy with her."