J'ai troqué [English translation]

I traded my white socks

For black stockings

And my saturday smock

For moire

My tender, infante's gaze

And my uptight ways

For a lover's look,

For rif-rafish airs.

The childhood mornings

When we would knock over Chopin,

The cousin meetings

Around a linen spindle,

The little good for all chambermaids

That my father used to be fond of

And my mother's lovers

Who would settle in for the year,

Well, I had enough of it all.

I traded my white socks

For black stockings

And my saturday smock

For moire

And this need for tenderness

That I was carrying around

I traded for caresses,

I traded for kisses.

I left the old domaine

Where my dreams were dying,

My chatelaine's title

Without sighs or regrets.

The street that is a big family

Did not hesitate.

It adopted me.

It transformed me in joyfulness

My sad airs of olden times.

It changed me, one could say.

I'm a girl of joy now.**)