My first is asphalt, it's desolate matter
It's windows in cubes facing a fragmented horizon
And then it's corridors without curves between two cliffs of concrete
So much human construction and so little nature to respond
My second is people living very close to each other
And not necessarily looking at each other even when they live side by side
But when sometimes they dare to speak in a civic impulse
It makes the decor more golden and then it opens to my third
My third is a mix, encounters and sharing
It creates a strange alchemy that makes us grow at every age
There are smiles in all languages and differences that fade
I've seen beautiful peaceful lives but I've also seen the emptiness across

My whole is the big city, I walk through its charades
I sometimes get the meaning wrong and in each mistake I wander
I chose it a long time ago as the best playground
To talk to it sometimes I admit I tried to get a little lost
My whole is the big city it grabbed me since childhood
I know it too well I criticize and praise it
I've been familiar with it for a long time even if it never reveals itself

I tried to tame it, it's the one that caught me in its web
It fed me, it trained me, it offered me its intoxication
It almost saw me fall, catch me just in time
And when its night offered me asphalt as the only horizon
It revealed itself as the preface to all my inspirations
And even today when I come home alone and very late
When the big city has dressed in its big black raincoat
I like it when it holds me back, it looks me in the eyes
It knows that I give in to it and I go back to get a little lost

My first is a clamoring, permanent hum
A familiar murmur like a reassuring rumor
It's a whirlwind of voices and reflections of lights
It's movement, music, laughter and popular pleasures
My second is the silence and sorrow of dead alleys
It's sadness behind the walls and isolation behind the doors
It's open-air misery and distress in free access
Facing the smells of rot and the waste of our excesses
My third is a land of experience, a laboratory
For the progress and dangers that the future will assert
It's the reign of contrasts that makes our society tremble
Which forces us to live alone, which teaches us to live together

My whole is the big city I walk through its charades
I sometimes get the meaning wrong and in each mistake I wander
I chose it a long time ago as the best playground
To talk to it sometimes I admit I tried to get a little lost
My whole is the big city it seized me by the five senses
By giving me its codes, it stole my innocence
But it awakened me, woke me up, revealed me by sheltering me
I remain amazed and cheered by it and all its inhabitants
It taught me, it conquered me, it offered me its madness
I know it's not always beautiful, I find it so pretty
And when I crossed its days and nights without transition
It revealed itself as the preface to all my inspirations
And even today when I come home alone and very late
When the big city has dressed in its big black raincoat
I like it when it holds me back, it looks me in the eyes
It knows that I give in to it and I go back to get a little lost

Your turn of the big city you will discover the charades
You will let yourself be surprised without really looking for a parade
You will love it, hate it, and as I know this game well
I'm going to freak out when you choose to get a little lost in it.

CONSULTER LES PAROLES ORIGINALES