Charles Aznavour - Hier Encore (Yesterday when I was young)

[Mousetoescamper]

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[highplainsdem]

1. Beautiful song, with both the French and the English lyrics.

English version, live at Carnegie Hall in 1995:

Of course the English lyrics aren't an exact translation, which would never have fit the melody.

Part of the French lyrics:

Hier encore, j'avais vingt ans
Je caressais le temps, et jouais de la vie
Comme on joue de l'amour, et je vivais la nuit
Sans compter sur mes jours, qui fuyaient dans le temps

J'ai fait tant de projets, qui sont restés en l'air
J'ai fondé tant d'espoirs, qui se sont envolés
Que je reste perdu, ne sachant où aller
Les yeux cherchant le ciel, mais le cœur mis en terre




English lyrics:

Yesterday, when I was young
The taste of life was sweet like rain upon my tongue
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game
The way an evening breeze would tease a candle flame

The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned
I always built to last on weak and shifting sand
I lived by night and shunned, the naked light of day
And only now, I see how the years have run away


Simple translation of the French lyrics to English (Google Translate):

Only yesterday, I was twenty years old
I caressed time, and played with life
As one plays with love, and I lived the night
Without counting on my days, which were fleeing in time

I made so many plans, which remained in the air
I founded so many hopes, which flew away
That I remain lost, not knowing where to go
Eyes seeking the sky, but my heart buried


Herbert Kretzmer, who wrote the English lyrics, also wrote the English lyrics for Les Misérables.

[sestina]

2. I love this song and this version,

and I remember hearing its melancholy message being delivered by Roy Clark when I was very young and my parents were listening to their records or the radio. I haven't thought of this song in decades. And now I know a bit of its origin and history, who wrote it and how many different singers performed it.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. A lovely, melancholy song. Thank you for posting it! nt