Charles Aznavour

‘Yesterday, when I was young’ (1971)
O melodie superbă pe care Azanvour o interpretează în engleză cu şarm şi accent inconfundabil.

Pentru francofonii incorigibili – versiunea originală:
‘Hier encore’

Yesterday when I was young,
The taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue,
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game,
The way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame;
The thousand dreams I dreamed,
The splendid things I planned I always built, alas,
on weak and shifting sand;

I lived by night and shunned the naked light of day
And only now I see how the years ran away.

Yesterday
When I was young,
So many drinking songs were waiting to be sung,
So many wayward pleasures lay in store for me
And so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see,
I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out,
I never stopped to think what life was all about
And every conversation I can now recall concerned itself with me,
and nothing else at all.

Yesterday the moon was blue,
and every crazy day brought something new to do,
I used my magic age as if it were a wand,
and never saw the waste and emptiness beyond;

The game of love I played with arrogance and pride
and every flame I lit too quickly, quickly died;

The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift away
And only I am left on stage to end the play.
There are so many songs in me that won’t be sung,
I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue,
The time has come for me to pay
for Yesterday When I was Young.

_______________________________________
Hier encore, j’avais vingt ans
Je caressais le temps et jouais de la vie
Comme on joue de l’amour
Et je vivais la nuit
Sans compter sur mes jours qui fuyaient dans le temps
J’ai fait tant de projet qui sont rests en l’air
J’ai fond tant d’espoirs qui se sont envols
Que je reste perdu ne sachant ou aller
Les yeux cherchant le ciel mais le coeur mis en terre

Hier encore j’avais vingt ans
Je gaspillais le temps en croyant l’arreter
et pour le retenir, mme le devancer
Je n’ai fait que courir et me suis essouffler
Ignorant le pass, conjuguant au futur
Je precedais de moi toute conversation
et donnais mon avis que je pensais le bon
Pour critiquer le monde avec dsinvolture

Hier encore j’avais vingt ans
Mais j’ai perdu mon temps a faire des folies
Qui ne me laissent au fond rien de vraiment precis
Que quelques rides au front et la peur de l’ennui
Car mes amours sont mortes avant que d’exister
Mes amis sont partis et ne reviendront pas
Par ma faute j’ai fait le vide autour de moi
Et j’ai gach ma vie et mes jeunes annes
Du meilleur et du pire en jettant le meilleur
J’ai fig mes sourirs et j’ai glac mes peurs
Ou sont-ils a present, a present mes vingts ans?