La dernière fois que je t’ai vu [English translation]

The last time I saw you, you already hardly

looked yourself anymore, your smile had disappeared and

this time it was surely not coming back.

The skin on your face was no longer as seen in photos

of you in summer, seated on café terraces, all over

France where you had all your life been able to find

café terraces in summer.

I looked for the nurse in the hospital corridors.

You said I can’t come up with anything else now.

Excuse me, I’m a bit out of it.

You often said things like that, I’m a bit 1

out of it.

I’m sleeping badly, I have nightmares.

We looked for things you could think about

the following night, the photo in which you were cycling in 1982

and I was sitting behind you.

You looked at the ceiling right in front of you and you

murmured: We took a few chances that day.

In the Poissy Hospital no nurses were to be found

in the corridors.

You must go home dear. You mustn’t keep

troubling yourself with coming to see me like this.

The nurse arrived as I was leaving the room

and that’s the last time I saw you.

She said: Is he your grandson? He’s tall.

1. "dans le cirage" to be groggy, not quite with it