They dreamed about sweet France1,
the children of exile.
Asylum policies send them
back by charter flights.
Isolated people here
might show some solidarity.
You wear wristwatchs
Me, I snatch them
Valorous financial king
sporting a cynical smile,
we build the walls,
you build the future
in locked-in cities ,
fear in the subways
under the song of slaves
as the bird flies away
I am a stranger,
the storm is my country.
I have no currency,
the road is my friend.
We get the civilization
You get the Calais camps2
We get our disenchantment
You get the concrete walls
We and our exhausted cultures
You become a lowly city worker
We sure get the best share
You get the slum hellholes
We the collaborating3
with babylons of money
We the prostituting
You the eye of the spring
We the robbers of lands
You son of tyrany
of our oil fields
You drinking rainwater
I am a stranger,
the storm is my country.
I have no currency,
the road is my friend.
I am a stranger,
and so goes my path.
I have burned the papers4
I have shared my wine
To pick up the trash
you work in the early hours.
We stare at the sky
You bend your body
Your hope locked in a cave
you pour sweat
under the song of slaves
for the benefit of the heartless
Every one an illegal alien
Every one without a homeland
Every one the son of a stranger
Every one the son of the wildfire
Sweet France, tell me why
I see nothing but ignorance
outrageous fascisms
in the country of our childhoods5?
We are all strangers,
The Earth is our country.
We have no currency,
the road is our friend.
We are all strangers,
the storm is our path.
You shall burn your papers,
you shall share your wine.
1. reference to the song "Douce France" from Charles Trénet, depicting an idealized country of wine and roses2. reference to Sangatte refugee camp in the late 90's. Sangatte is located near Calais, at the French end of the Channel tunnel3. allusion to French collaboration with Nazi Germany during WWII. "collaborant" is an unusual way of saying things, as if collaboration was defining the person4. immigration documents5. The first line of "Douce France" says "Sweet France, the country of my childhood"