Les estrelles [English translation]

I've never wanted to bore you

-the truth is not to be sung-.

But, forgive me, today I bring you

the thing of which I am most certain.

Stars come, go,

burn quickly or take years,

and, like the last rays of the sun, disappear.

From far, you can see glory,

but it's not worth much if you don't know how to share it.

Indulge me for a few minutes, listen to a story...

About how people lose themselves

for a few rounds of applause.

They play with their health, they sell their mothers,

and one gets crowned, and one gets destroyed, and one goes missing in action.

But many have seen it all!

Spending their lives in empty rooms and seedy tents.

And they all have a story.

There are those who blow up whilst young,

until time puts them in their place.

Afterwards someone comes along saying

that everything is old fashioned

and it's someone else's turn.

But nobody will know how it hurts

when your own name sounds strange

or the long years forgetting what you know best:

that you're a shadow of the past, for nostalgics and the mad

and you look for solutions, you want to be brave,

perhaps telling yourself

that you never saw the eyes

of the young, determined,

that they wanted an autograph,

or to get into your bed.

And there were many who came,

but you never believed that they loved you.

Never.

There are those who blow up whilst old,

perhaps they had thick skin and had been able to keep fighting,

or perhaps they didn't understand what was happening very well.

Stars come, go,

burn quickly or take years,

and, like the last rays of the sun, disappear.

Listen to a story.

There are bodies that others want to look at

and they stick them on the sideboard!

There are excellent guitarists,

I could have died listening to them...

But what difference does it make,

that's not what I've come to say,

I want to explain a story,

because we all have stories.

Janis Ian explained it very well.1

Nina Simone did it better still!2

And the stars carry on exploding

and extinguishing themselves in the song that never stops!

And they all have a story!

And they all have a story!

And they all have a story!

1. Reference to Stars by Janis Ian, of which this song is mostly an adaptation2. Nina Simone covered Stars