Oh, ma petite Madeleine
above our garden
the sky is as blue as the flax flower
even above the ground where they will bury
all the days I wanted to live out with you
all the dreams and lives turned into thousands of corpses
and above all that, Madeleine
look, the sky is as blue as the flax flower
The day has begun in Paris
with the murmurs of colonnades
it is a lonng way to Verdun
where the artillery fires thunder
but everywhere around me only a stretch of trenches
there's no one to even nail together a cross, a friend makes a grave to a friend
and above all that, Madeleine
God above is just watching
Who has the power to melt down the tongues of the bells
I can hear your whisper "Don't go, my love, you're mine!"
Madeleine, they will do this again to us
and what happened to us will happen to our sons as well
On the other side of the frontline
two eyes underneath a helmet
a human, the same as me
nights and days spent under fire
If I met him anywhere else, I would give him a cigarette
and now he's praying he only ends up in the field hospital
But Madeleine, even they are
the same as we are - les soldats inconnus
But Madeleine, even they are
the same as we are - men of names unknown
Oh, ma petite Madeleine
above our garden
the sky is as blue as the flax flower
even above the ground where they will bury
all those days I wanted to live out with you
instead of in your arms I lie under a grave mound of bodies
and above all that the sky is as blue as the flax flower
forgive me, forgive me, my Madeleine