A Protest Song / J’aurais dû
A Protest Song: song woven from self-reproach, where lucidity regains control after falling in love. The other person we fell for, a mirage in which we believed... And we blame ourselves for having lost ourselves in the other, for having faded away before them… and we get over it.
J’aurais dû (I should have): same expression of self-reproach, same reaffirmation of self after the admission of weakness. The images in the text evoke the ambivalence between the irresistible attraction and the painful realization that love could not keep its promises.
A Protest Song
Written by
Sophie Hunger
You are the answer, you never talk / You have no question, you are a thought / You are the answer, you're shaped and emblazed / Through the holes in my cover, something I made / You are the answer, my truthful response / My final saying when everyone's gone
You're my illusion, my pattern of wrong / Hollow idol, tip of my tongue / You’re my disgrace and my self-made war / And I don't want to remember faith anymore / Wasting myself in the name of a fake / You were made for me by mistake
Oh wash away / Oh wash away / You had nothing to say / You were made for me by mistake
I had nothing before, then I had you / I was denying, now I refuse / Never been young, you'll never grow old / My life's in my words, hands they are cold / Never made sense but now I disturb / And I'm bashing my goods against the door of the world
Oh wash away / Oh wash away / You had nothing to say / You were made for me by mistake
J'aurais dû
French kiss by
François Godin
Tu me complètes, tu te défiles / Tu es promesse évanescente / Je te rends grâce d’un garrot posé / Sur mes cris, sur mes manques ; il est tombé / Tu es le bon mot qui vient à l’esprit / Quand il n’est plus temps, que tous sont partis
Tu es l’idole, le géant d’argile / La casse à venir, ma mauvaise pente / Un piège si gros, et j’y tombe encore / Ce qui ne tue pas ne rend pas plus fort / J’ai honte, j’ai beau me dire que c’est humain / J’aurais dû passer mon chemin
Oh oh oh oh du vent / Oh oh oh oh du vent / Passade, désir violent / J’aurais dû passer mon chemin
Tu comptais pour tout et moi pour rien / J’en étais là, faut-il être crétin / Va, vis et cause, étourdis-toi / J’écris, je compose, je ne t’attendais pas / À quelque chose, dit-on, malheur est bon / J’ai blotti ma rage au creux de cette chanson
Oh oh oh oh du vent / Oh oh oh oh du vent / Passade, désir violent / J’aurais dû passer mon chemin
I should have
Translation of the
French adaptation
You complete me, you slip away / You are an evanescent promise / I thank you for a tourniquet placed / On my cries, on my shortcomings; now it fell / You are the quip that comes to mind / When it’s too late, when everyone’s gone​
You are the idol, the clay giant / The breakage to come, my slippery slope / A trap so big, and I fall into it again / What doesn’t kill you doesn’t make you stronger / I feel ashamed, though I tell myself that it's only human / Still, I should have moved on
Oh oh just a gust / Oh oh a gust of wind / A fling, a violent desire / I should have moved on
You meant everything and I meant nothing / I had reached this point, what a fool I was / Go, live and talk, make yourself dizzy / I write, I compose, I wasn’t waiting for you / They say that we get something good out of our misfortunes / I nestled my rage in the hollow of this song
Oh oh just a gust / Oh oh a gust of wind / A fling, a violent desire / I should have moved on
The voice/piano demos of the French versions were recorded for the strict purpose of presenting my adaptation work. No broadcasting or public sharing on social networks, media or any other platform is authorized.
Any recording or public presentation by third parties of the songs in their French version is subject to my authorization as well as that of the rights holders of the original song.
