“Parce qu’on ne sait jamais” (English: “Because we never know”) is my favourite track on “Mon paradis,” by Christophe Maé, so I thought I should share it. The lyrics, translation, video, and explanation of the phrases and vocabulary are all after the jump.
I really like Christophe Maé’s music so I would highly recommend that you download this album, or at least one or two of his songs. He is a very popular French pop singer, whose style is infused with a folksy sound. Maé notably portrays the role of Monsieur, the brother of Louis XIV (the fourteenth) in the popular French musical “Le Roi Soleil.” Maé’s first studio album was released in 2007 entitled: “Mon paradis.” It went to #1 on the French charts, and was also a huge hit in Belgium and Switzerland. I was able to download it on Canadian iTunes, so it must have had some success in Canada as well.
The vocabulary and explanation of phrases come after the lyrics and translation.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| Tant de plaisirs faciles, d'envies puériles | Plenty of easy pleasures, childish desires |
| Qui nous retiennent vers le bas | That keep us down |
| Prêt à n’importe quel deal quand il faut mourir | We're ready to make any deal when we must die |
| On se met à tout croire | We begin to believe everything |
| CHORUS: | CHORUS: |
| Parce qu'on sait jamais | Because we never know |
| On regarde vers le haut | We look up |
| Si il y a un après | If there is an afterlife |
| Au moins sauver sa peau | So at least save his skin |
| On est capable du pire des mea culpa | We are capable of the worst mea culpa |
| De toutes les mauvaises foi | Of all the bad faith |
| Qui pourrait encore dire qui est saint Thomas | Who could say if even St. Thomas is? |
| Quand son heure arrivera | When his hour arrives |
| CHORUS | CHORUS |
| Alors on baisse les bras pour venir se faire pardonner | Then we lower our arms to come be forgiven |
| D’y avoir cru tellement peu et de vouloir se racheter | To have thought so little and to want to redeem ourselves |
| CHORUS X2 | CHORUS X2 |
Vocabulary:
les envies (fem.) puériles: childish desires
l’envie (fem.): desire
puérile: childish
retenir: to hold, to detain, to restrain – but in the context within the song: “qui nous retiennent vers le bas” it means “to hold down.”
après: in the context of the song “si il y a un après” it means afterwards or afterlife.
mea culpa: an acknowledgement of one’s own faults. This is a Latin saying that is also used in English. Literally “mea culpa” translates (from Latin) as “by my fault.”
se racheter: to redeem themselves
racheter: to redeem
And here are the French lyrics, alongside the video with lyrics.