Street Spirit / En poussière
Street Spirit: a song of despair, a vision of the end of everything. Thom Yorke describes it as the darkest song in his repertoire: forces of death and destruction attacking all organic life; they are closing ranks, they will fall upon us, they will swallow us whole. It could be a final blow from technology that is about to take over humanity, take control of everything – “This machine will, will not communicate”… The phrase “Be a world child, form a circle” sounded to me like a sneer at the idea that by supporting each other, gathering together, reconnecting with what is purest in us, we would have the power to push back the worst… In contrast, the exhortation at the very end of the song, “Immerse yourself in love” felt like a cry devoid of cynicism: to draw strength, in spite of everything, from what grounds us in humanity, that is all we have left – even though, as the song suggests, it is to be feared that this might not be enough. ​
​En poussière (into dust) : there have been times in my life when I no longer felt any drive to undertake anything, when all I saw around me were ruins in the making; with that, an oppression, woven with a sense of the absurd and a resigned expectation of absolute catastrophe that alone could shake an undeniably intolerable world off its foundations. So I communed with a familiar, all-too-familiar despair, by looking for new words for this song – but even the word song seems no longer appropriate, for a text of such darkness. “Be a world child, form a circle” has become in French « Fais ta part pour la planète »/“Do your part for the planet”: I put there my own sneer at the exhortation, repeated to the point of being unbearable, to save the world through small gestures. The text of Street Spirit has something of the mysterious monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, bearing a message no doubt for humanity, but one can only collide with its black and smooth surface. I’ve tried to capture the brilliance of a vision, the force of a gaze that does not flinch in the face of what is stupefying, stifling, almost beyond comprehension.
Street Spirit
Written by
Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, Colin Greenwood and Philip Selway
(Radiohead)
Rows of houses, all bearing down on me / I can feel their blue hands touching me / All these things into position / All these things we’ll one day swallow whole / And fade out again and fade out
This machine will, will not communicate / These thoughts and the strain I am under / Be a world child, form a circle / Before we all go under / And fade out again and fade out again
Cracked eggs, dead birds, scream as they fight for life / I can feel death, can see its beady eyes / All these things into position / All these things we’ll one day swallow whole / And fade out again and fade out again
Immerse your soul in love / Immerse your soul in love
En poussière
French kiss by
François Godin
Murs qui penchent, qui me touchent du doigt / Murs immenses, qui pèsent de tout leur poids / Y’a le mortier qui s’effrite / Y’a la mort qui rit dans l’interstice / Tout tombe en poussière, tout tombe
Ça te gave, le noir les airs funèbres / Toi, tu ne fais que cliquer « J’aime » / Fais ta part pour la planète / Bois ta bière, fais la fête, avant de / Voler en poussière, voler en poussière
​
Rats difformes, golems tombés de haut / Crois en l’homme, il te fera la peau / Fol aveuglement de l’orgueil / On va tout se prendre en pleine gueule / Et voler en poussière, voler en poussière
Enivre-toi d’amour / Enivre-toi d’amour
Falling to Dust
Translation of the
French adaptation
Leaning walls, touching me with their fingers / Huge walls, weighing down with all their weight / The mortar is crumbling / Death is laughing in the gap / Everything is falling to dust, everything is falling
You're fed up with the darkness, the funeral tunes / You do nothing but click the "Like" button / Do your part for the planet / Drink your beer, party, before / Flying to dust, flying to dust
Deformed rats, golems fallen from above / Have faith in man, he will skin you / Crazy blindness of vanity / We're going to get hit hard in the face / And fly to dust, fly to dust
​
Get drunk on love / Get drunk on love
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.
