Dernière Danse by Indila was the first single off her debut album “Mini World.” We review the French lyrics and English translation below, and dive into the meaning of the lyrics and some vocabulary from the song.
Indila: Dernière Danse Music Video
Here is the music video for the song:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| [Couplet 1] | [Verse 1] |
| Ô ma douce souffrance | Oh my sweet suffering |
| Pourquoi s'acharner tu recommences | Why do you hound me, incessantly |
| Je ne suis qu'un être sans importance | I am just an unimportant person |
| Sans lui je suis un peu paro' | Without it I'm a bit lost |
| Je déambule seule dans le métro | I wander alone in the subway |
| Une dernière danse | A last dance |
| Pour oublier ma peine immense | To forget my immense sorrow |
| Je veux m'enfuir que tout recommence | I want to run away, for everything to begin again |
| Oh ma douce souffrance | Oh my Sweet suffering |
| [Refrain] | [Chorus] |
| Je remue le ciel le jour, la nuit | I move mountains, day and night |
| Je danse avec le vent la pluie | I dance with the wind the rain |
| Un peu d'amour, un brin de miel | A little love, a bit of honey |
| Et je danse, danse, danse, danse, danse, danse | And I dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance |
| Et dans le bruit, je cours et j'ai peur | And in the noise, I run and I'm scared |
| Est ce mon tour ? | Is it my turn? |
| Vient la douleur | Here comes the pain |
| Dans tout Paris, je m’abandonne | Throughout Paris, I abandon myself |
| Et je m'envole, vole, vole, vole, vole | And I fly, fly, fly, fly, fly |
| [Pont 1] | [Bridge 1] |
| Que d’espérance | Nothing but hope |
| Sur ce chemin en ton absence | On this path in your absence |
| J'ai beau trimer, sans toi ma vie n'est qu'un décor qui brille, vide de sens | Try as I might, without you my life is just a beautiful display, meaningless |
| [Refrain] | [Chorus] |
| Je remue le ciel le jour, la nuit | I move mountains, day and night |
| Je danse avec le vent la pluie | I dance with the wind the rain |
| Un peu d'amour, un brin de miel | A little love, a bit of honey |
| Et je danse, danse, danse, danse, danse, danse | And I dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance |
| Et dans le bruit, je cours et j'ai peur | And in the noise, I run and I'm scared |
| Est ce mon tour ? | Is it my turn? |
| Vient la douleur | Here comes the pain |
| Dans tout Paris, je m’abandonne | Throughout Paris, I abandon myself |
| Et je m'envole, vole, vole, vole, vole | And I fly, fly, fly, fly, fly |
| [Pont 2] | [Bridge 2] |
| Dans cette douce souffrance | In this sweet suffering |
| Dont j'ai payé toutes les offenses | I paid for all the offences |
| Écoute comme mon cœur est immense | Listen as my heart is immense |
| Je suis une enfant du monde | I am a child of the world |
| [Refrain] | [Chorus] |
| Je remue le ciel le jour, la nuit | I move mountains, day and night |
| Je danse avec le vent la pluie | I dance with the wind the rain |
| Un peu d'amour un brin de miel | A bit of love a bit of honey |
| Et je danse, danse, danse, danse, danse, danse | And I dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance |
| Et dans le bruit, je cours et j'ai peur | And in the noise, I run and I'm scared |
| Est ce mon tour? | Is it my turn? |
| Vient la douleur... | Here comes the pain... |
| Dans tout Paris, je m’abandonne | In all of Paris, I abandon myself |
| Et je m'envole, vole, vole, vole, vole | And I fly, fly, fly, fly, fly |
Dernière Danse by Indila: Lyrics Breakdown & Explanation
In order to really understand the lyrics, we need to know a bit about Indila. Although she has kept a lot of her life story private, Indila has described herself as a “child of the world” of Algerian descent, but also with heritage from Cambodia, India, and Egypt. Indila has sung in French, English, and also Hindi. Indila has said that she chose “Indila” as her stage name because of her love for India. Indila wrote Dernière Danse with her husband Skalpovich, the French DJ-turned-producer.
Although Indila is quite reserved in interviews, she talks about her struggle to fit the size of her emotions into words in her songs. In a 2014 interview she discussed how early on when she was writing songs she struggled because all the words seemed “too small” for the emotions she was trying to convey.
Interestingly, in the same interview she says that Dernière Danse was the first song that she wrote on her album, and that once she had written it, the rest of the album flowed very naturally.
Dernière Danse is about the emotions that a young immigrant woman feels in Paris, having to cope with racism and discrimination day in and day out.
Let’s have a look at some of the lyrics to dive deeper. Here’s the lyrics video if you want to follow along.
First Verse
In this verse Indila addresses her suffering, and through the use of a phonetic resemblance she indicates that the source of her suffering is France (or likely the people of France). This is also apparent in the music video, where the opening of the song and most of the first verse consists of acts of cruelty and indifference visited upon Indila by the people of Paris, at times indiscriminately.
Oh ma douce souffrance
In the first verse Indila personifies her suffering, addressing it directly as “Ô ma douce souffrance,” which translates to “oh my sweet suffering.” This line also sounds like the title of a famous French expression (and song) “douce France” (sweet France). By invoking this reference to France, she links the expression of her suffering to the nation of France. Additionally, she is playing with juxtaposition by pairing the words “sweet” and “suffering” together.
Pourquoi s’acharner tu recommences
I’ve translated this as “why do you hound, incessantly” because “s’acharner” is translated in completely different ways depending on the context. It can be translated as “to insist,” “to attack,” “to harass,” “to carry out a smear campaign,” (yes really) and many others. It basically means that someone is receiving some form of unwanted and negative attention in a really aggressive and on-going way. So here Indila is saying that her suffering is hounding her, and that it continue on and on.
Paro
The term “paro” is a slang term popularized by the rapper Kery James. It has several meanings, but in this case it means that Indila feels uncomfortable and ill at ease. She is wandering around the Paris Métro (subway) feeling anxious.
Then Indila speaks of “a last dance” to “forget her immense sorrow.” What is the last dance exactly? Well let’s look at the chorus.
CHORUS
Je remue le ciel le jour, la nuit
This literally translates as “I move the sky, the day, the night” but the expression “Remuer le ciel et terre,” literally “to mix earth and sky” and is like the English expression “to move mountains.” So I’ve translated it as “I move mountains, day and night.” What Indila is saying is that she is working VERY hard. Beyond just mixing earth and sky she is mixing sky, day, and night.
The chorus contrasts a lot of city imagery (wandering alone in the metro) with a lot of nature imagery. Now Indila is dancing in the wind and rain. She is getting a bit of love and a bit of honey.
But she is still running away from something – and is still scared, but she dances any way, losing herself in Paris.
In the video we can see clearly that what she is running from is experiences of indifference, which may well we motivated by racism towards people of North African descent. Later in the song Indila remarks that she is “a child of the world” – a descriptor used in French by people whose parents are foreigners or who is mixed-race. In Indila’s case she is the child of foreigners and is mixed-race (she describes herself as having Algerian, Egyptian, Indian, and Cambodian heritage).
When she asks “is it my turn?” it reminds me of the line in the Little Mermaid’s song “Part of Your World” when Ariel asks “when’s it my turn? Wouldn’t I love… love to explore the shores up above.” It may seem like a strange comparison, but both songs contain big feelings of longing, although in Indila’s case it seems like what she is longing for is acceptance within Paris.
I also want to take a moment here to compare the first verse and the chorus sonically.
The beginning of the song has this very light-hearted, bouncy and upbeat melody, which eventually gives way to the very powerful and dramatic chorus. I get the sense that Indila is the sort of person who seems very calm and collected on the outside, but has these huge powerful emotions on the inside.
The first verse is about what she looks like on the outside – she is wandering in the metro, and maybe to an outside observer she looks fine, cheerful even, maybe like she is daydreaming.
But then we get to the chorus and she lets loose with her powerful voice to describe the very strong emotions that are tearing her apart.
I LOVE that in the video she is made powerful – she isn’t alone in being terrorized by her own feelings of alienation and sadness, she externalizes them into a storm that terrorizes all of Paris so that they can all feel the terror and despair that SHE feels all the time.
OK let’s have a quick look at Bridges 1 and 2.
Bridge 1
Here Indila is addressing someone, lamenting how hopeless her life is without them (or it)? It’s not 100% clear here if she is upset about the loss of a person, or about something she is missing in life (dignity? Respect? Inclusion?).
Bridge 2
I love this part – here she is essentially saying that she has paid for “all her offences” with her suffering and I feel that the implication is that she has paid for some offences that may not have been hers to bear (e.g. she “pays for” Parisians negative views of North Africans/people who look like Indila/immigrants). And yet she wants to remind us that she has a huge heart that feels all these slights and is hurt by her harsh treatment.
According to the rhyming structure of the last word of each line (souffrance, offenses, immense) we would expect her to say “Je suis un enfant de France” (I’m a child of France), but instead she says “Je suis un enfant du monde” (I’m a child of the world). This is an expression used to describe children who are mixed race or whose parents are foreigners (not French).
So here Indila is proudly proclaiming that she is a child of the world, in a place where we might expect her to assert that she is a child of France. Sorry France, you could have had Indila (who was born and raised in France) but at least in this song she is fed up with Parisiens and so she is a child of the world, not of France. 😉
What do you think of this song? Do you love this video as much as I do? Indila is a pretty good actress – the look she gets at 1:39 – GIRL that is some great face acting! I 100% believe she would summon a storm to rain down on Paris.