SUFFERING FOR YOU IS NO SUFFERING

JULIEN CLERC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c49_exfPoT8

This is not a faithful translation of the lyrics. The song – one of the best by Julien, my favourite--- is so beautiful, so poignant that nobody can do justice to a translation. I am trying to give the lovely, moving sense of the song.

Julien has always taken naturally without drama and in his stride the ups and downs of inter-personal relationships---particularly between a man and a woman. It is not very clear to me whether this song is dedicated to a woman who has left him or who is dead. It could apply to both.

Julien appeals to the woman to come back to him----informally, casually without any sense of guilt, without feeling the need to give an explanation. He says: You don’t have to blush. You don’t have to tell me a lie (as to why she left him ). You don’t have to smile ( to convince him that things are OK again ).

He says: Just walk in. The drawing room is wasting its time without you. There is a place for you at the dining table. Stay again with me. Let us live in the present for the rest of our lives.

The refrain of the song always makes me cry. Suffering for you is no suffering. Dying for you is no dying. It is as simple as my making you laugh.

There is one sentence the import of which I am not able to understand. He says: “My travels mean nothing.” My inference is that he is telling her that making you smile and laugh gives me greater pleasure than my travels.

Do enjoy.