Petit matin [English translation]

A depressing1 early morning

A cup of java, smoking factories.

I look at the back of the houses,

the wives are busy in their kitchens.

Some birds are courting each other

perched on the Bell Phone wires,

and throug my courtyard's gouged out eye

the roar of a 747 is echoing.

A huge transformer grows

among the remains of an oak.

On the window I draw a heart

that the mist barely outlines.

The radio is bawling out tunes

that would have a blackbird hang itself.

The children are playing outside,

a necklace of pearls amid the slush.

Early morning, cramped morning,

a depressing early morning.

A crime of passion in the Lacordaire street,

they say things go from bad to worse

for the potato eaters.

Between two ads in page 100,

they also say the president

is having fun playing the roulette

with what remains of the planet.

Me, I walk to my piano,

I stumble on this tune of my grandmother's.

As for the lyrics, I just replay

my lonely early morning.

Too bad everything is so grey.

I would have liked to say something else.

Would that we could start life anew

before singing about roses again.

Early morning, cramped morning,

a depressing early morning. (x2)

1. lit. "without an horizon", which could mean "overcast" or "without a future", "hopeless"