#4 Les lyrics du jeudi /// The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy - A Lady Of A Certain Age (from Victory For The Cosmic Muse)

(Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brasserie Lipp, 1969)

Quand tu étais jeune, tu faisais partie de la haute société. Grâce à ta jeunesse et à ta noble ascendance, tu étais de tous les galas et tout le monde te convoitait. Tu t'es marié avec un homme riche, comme c'était d'usage, à qui tu a donné des enfants, un fils et une fille, et tu t'es dépêchée de les confier à ta bonne, pour ne pas rater cette vie mondaine qui te plaisait tant. Ce n'est pas que tu ne les aimais pas, non, mais tu n'avais pas vraiment le temps.

Puis tu as vieilli. Ton mari s'est fait plus absent, a commencé à voir ailleurs, une maitresse ici, une autre là; tes enfants, ils se sont rapidement retrouvés en pension, loin de toi, c'est comme ça qu'on faisait à l'époque. Déjà tu commençais à t'effacer, à repenser au passé, à cet âge d'or qui semblait disparaitre à chaque seconde qui passait.

Et tu as encore vieilli. Ton mari, mort d'une crise cardiaque, a laissé son héritage à l'une de ses maitresses. Tes enfants, que tu n'as finalement pas connu, sont vite parti faire leur vie de leur côté. Les soirées que tu appréciais tant ne semblaient plus te vouloir.

Tu te retrouve finalement seule, complètement seule, et si par un miracle un jeune homme t'invite à boire un verre, jamais il ne croira que tu as été toi-même jeune un jour, car cette partie là de toi s'est éteinte, partie avec le temps.

Back in the day you had been part of the smart set

You'd holidayed with kings, dined out with starlets

From London to New York, Cap Ferrat to Capri

In perfume by Chanel and clothes by Givenchy

You sipped camparis with David and Peter

At Noel's parties by Lake Geneva

Scaling the dizzy heights of high society

Armed only with a cheque-book and a family tree

You chased the sun around the Cote d'Azur

Until the light of youth became obscured

And left you on your own and in the shade

An English lady of a certain age

And if a nice young man would buy you a drink

You'd say with a conspiratorial wink

"You wouldn't think that I was seventy"

And he'd say,"no, you couldn't be!"

You had to marry someone very very rich

So that you might be kept in the style to which

You had all of your life been accustomed to

But that the socialists had taxed away from you

You gave him children, a girl and a boy

To keep your sanity a nanny was employed

And when the time came they were sent away

Well that was simply what you did in those days

You chased the sun around the Cote d'Azur

Until the light of youth became obscured

And left you on your own and in the shade

An English lady of a certain age

And if a nice young man would buy you a drink

You'd say with a conspiratorial wink

"You wouldn't think that I was sixty three"

And he'd say,"no, you couldn't be!"

Your son's in stocks and bonds and lives back in Surrey

Flies down once in a while and leaves in a hurry

Your daughter never finished her finishing school

Married a strange young man of whom you don't approve

Your husband's hollow heart gave out one Christmas Day

He left the villa to his mistress in Marseille

And so you come here to escape your little flat

Hoping someone will fill your glass and let you chat about how

You chased the sun around the Cote d'Azur

Until the light of youth became obscured

And left you all alone and in the shade

An English lady of a certain age

And if a nice young man would buy you a drink

You'd say with a conspiratorial wink

"You wouldn't think that I was fifty three"

And he'd say,"no, you couldn't be!"