L'hymne de nos campagnes [English translation]

If you were born in a HLM* city

This poem is for you

Hoping that deep down in your dull eyes

You'll see a blade

And hands have to take part in things

It’s a nice moment to take a break

To swap this delinquent life

For a rose

[Chorus]:

It’s the anthem of our countryside

Of our rivers, of our mountains

Of the life, man, of the animal world

Shout it loud, use your vocal chords!

No jobs, no diplomas

Same zone smell everywhere

Nothing makes your neurons shake anymore

Not even the hash you put in your joints

Go somewhere else, nothing binds you here

Go fast do something with your hands

Don’t come back, you have nothing here

And be the first one to sing this chorus

[Chorus]

Sit down next to a river

Listen to sound water makes against the ground

Say to yourself that in the end, hey! There’s the sea

And that’s not ephemeral at all

Then you'll understand you have nothing

Like the one before you, the one to come

That the liquid slipping through your hands

Will be useful to live until tomorrow morning!

[Chorus]

Sit down next to an old oak

And compare it to the human race

The oxygen and the shadow it gives you

Does it deserve the blow of the axes that bleed it?

Raise your head, look at its leaves

You might see a squirrel

Staring at you proudly

Its house is there, you’re in the threshold…

[Chorus]

I might be talking to not say a thing

That when you hear me you want to laugh

But if concrete is your future

Say to yourself that it's thanks to the forest that you breathe

I’d like for all the animals

That you get the message from my words

Given that a piece of ground, the stem of a reed

Will be useful for your children's growth! (x2)

[Chorus]