To appease my health insurance company, my wife and my weary guardian angel I try to exercise (moderately) every day, and when I do, I usually listen to a collection of tunes stored on my iPhone.
My phone holds about 500 songs, some in French, Spanish, English, German, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Russian…
As you can see, I am an equal opportunity listener.
If a tune is catchy I will listen to it regardless of its language and its origins.
Among the French songs, there is one that I am particularly fond of.
It is called “la tendresse” (tenderness).
It was written by Italian born Patricia Carli and made famous by popular French singer Daniel Guichard.
In days of half-baked lyrics and dreadful melodies? shouted by half naked performers, it is refreshing to listen to heartfelt feelings that ring a bell in many of us.
Hoping that you like it as much as I do, here are the (inadequately translated) lyrics of this song:
La tendresse
C’est quelquefois ne plus s’aimer mais être heureux
De se trouver à nouveau deux
C’est refaire pour quelques instants un monde en bleu
Avec le cœur au bord des yeux
La tendresse, la tendresse, la tendresse
La tendresse, la tendresse
C’est quand on peut se pardonner sans réfléchir
Sans un regret sans rien se dire
C’est quand on veut se séparer sans se maudire
Sans rien casser, sans rien détruire
Tenderness
It is sometimes not loving each other anymore but being happy
To be together again
It is remaking for a few moments a world in blue
With the heart at the edge of the eyes (poetic license; extremely difficult to translate)
Tenderness, tenderness, tenderness,
Tenderness, tenderness,
It is when one can forgive without thinking,
Without a regret, without saying anything
It is when you can separate without cursing
Without breaking anything, without destroying anything
La tendresse, la tendresse, la tendresse
La tendresse, la tendresse
C’est un geste, un mot, un sourire quand on oublie
Que tous les deux on a grandi
C’est quand je veux te dire je t’aime et que j’oublie
Qu’un jour ou l’autre l’amour finit
La tendresse, la tendresse, la tendresse
La tendresse
La tendresse, la tendresse, la tendresse
La tendresse
Allez viens.
Tenderness, tenderness, tenderness
Tenderness, tenderness,
It is a gesture, a word, a smile when we forget
That we both grew up
It is when I want to say that I love you and forget
That love ends some day
Tenderness, tenderness, tenderness
Tenderness, tenderness
Come…
Alain
http://youtu.be/y1tflDrGDys