This is the story of Loulou Lapierre
A young mother quite ordinary
Who works part-time
As a maid in a hotel
And endures in her little two-bedroom
The sad life of rent-controlled housing
And of mornings always bleak
She isn't even twenty-five
And already has three children
From two different fathers
That vanished into thin air
Leaving her in misery
Without child support ...
Happy suffering!
Beneath a roughcast sky
Between the cases of beer
And the children's toys
Happy suffering!
For Loulou Lapierre
Who'd just as well tell herself
That after all, life isn't so bad...
She's living with a jackass
A jerk who's always drunk
And who plays video games
Doing nothing all day
He sleeps off all his afternoons
And at night he goes out with his friends
To dance the rumba all night
He hates children
In fact he yells at them all the time
And blows a fuse left and right
But when she says she's going to leave him
He starts to beg her
Like a scum with no pride...
Happy suffering!
Beneath a roughcast sky
Between the cases of beer
And the children's toys
Happy suffering!
For Loulou Lapierre
Who'd just as well tell herself
That after all, life isn't so bad...
When she's had enough
Of her life filled with dark clouds
She comes over to drink tea
Away from the noise and the bickering
We laugh, we gossip about our problems
We whine a bit against the system
Which always favours the same people
We tell ourselves that one morning
Given how much we like each other
We should go far away
And in a burst of laughter
She always ends up telling me
That it couldn't get any worse!
Happy suffering!
Beneath a roughcast sky
Between the cases of beer
And the children's toys
Happy suffering!
For Loulou Lapierre
Who'd just as well tell herself
That one day, we're going to pull through