MON VIEUX (French) (Michelle Senlis -1933-2020 Daniel Guichard 1948- / Jean Ferrat -1930-2010) Dans son vieux pardessus râpé Il s'en allait l'hiver, l'été Dans le petit matin frileux Mon vieux Y'avait qu'un dimanche par semaine Les autres jours, c'était la graine Qu'il allait gagner comme on peut Mon vieux L'été, on allait voir la mer Tu vois, c'était pas la misère C'était pas non plus le paradis Eh ouais, tant pis Dans son vieux pardessus râpé Il a pris, pendant des années Le même autobus de banlieue Mon vieux Le soir, en rentrant du boulot Il s'asseyait sans dire un mot Il était du genre silencieux Mon vieux Les dimanches étaient monotones On ne recevait jamais personne Ça ne le rendait pas malheureux Je crois, mon vieux Dans son vieux pardessus râpé Les jours de paye, quand il rentrait On l'entendait gueuler un peu Mon vieux Nous, on connaissait la chanson Tout y passait, bourgeois, patron La gauche, la droite, même le Bon Dieu Avec mon vieux Chez nous, y'avait pas la télé C'est dehors que j'allais chercher Pendant quelques heures l'évasion Je sais, c'est con Dire que j'ai passé des années À côté de lui, sans le regarder On a à peine ouvert les yeux Nous deux J'aurais pu, c'était pas malin Faire avec lui un bout de chemin Ça l'aurait peut-être rendu heureux Mon vieux Mais quand on a juste quinze ans On n'a pas le cœur assez grand Pour y loger toutes ces choses-là Tu vois Maintenant qu'il est loin d'ici En pensant à tout ça, je me dis J'aimerai bien qu'il soit près de moi Papa

MY OLD MAN In his old, threadbare overcoat He would go off, in summer, in winter In the little, cold morning My old man There was only one Sunday a week The rest of the week, he would work To earn money like he could My old man In summer, we would go to the sea You know, it wasn't misery It wasn't paradise either But oh well In his old, threadbare overcoat Several years long he took The same suburb bus My old man In the evening, as he'd come back from work He would sit down without saying a word He was the silent type My old man Every Sunday was monotonous We never had any guests But he wasn't sad about it I guess, my old man In his old, threadbare overcoat On paydays, when he'd come back home We could hear him shouting a little My old man To us, it was always the same old song He'd ramble on about everything—rich people, bosses The left wing, the right wing, even God That was my old man We didn't have TV at home Instead, I'd go out for a walk For a few hours, to take my mind off things That's dumb, ya know! To think I spent several years Next to him without ever giving him a look We barely opened our eyes The two of us It wasn't very clever of me 'cause I could Have walked with him to the bus stop Perhaps he would've liked it My old man But when you're just fifteen Your heart isn't big enough To hold all those things in You see Now that he's far from here When I remember all this, I think to myself 'I wish he were by my side right now' Dad.

Translation by "Maëlstrom", borrowed from Lyrics Translate

Daniel Guichard's 1974 live rendition
Daniel Guichard's 2005 live rendition with French subtitles.
Daniel Guichard's 2015 live rendition.

"In 1962, Michelle Senlis wrote the text My Old Man in homage to her father, a text that Jean Ferrat put to music in 1963. The same year, the song was performed by two singers, Jacques Boyer and Jean-Louis Stain. On November 7, 1963, Michelle Senlis' father died; she then requested the song no longer be exploited. However, in 1974, she agreed to co-sign Daniel Guichard's remake. Later, she declared that she regretted this gesture because she criticized Daniel Guichard for having performed the song in 1973 with modified lyrics without her agreement and that "everyone" hid it from her when signing. Furthermore, following the enormous success by Daniel Guichard's remake, Michelle Senlis said she had a hard time with the 'false connection' that journalists made between Daniel Guichard and the song." -French Wikipedia


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