QUE SERAIS-JE SANS TOI ? © Louis Aragon (1897 -1982) / Jean Ferrat (1930-2010). (Refrain) Que serais-je sans toi qui vins à ma rencontre ? Que serais-je sans toi qu'un cœur au bois dormant ? Que cette heure arrêtée au cadran de la montre ? Que serais-je sans toi que ce balbutiement ? J'ai tout appris de toi sur les choses humaines Et j'ai vu désormais le monde à ta façon, J'ai tout appris de toi comme on boit aux fontaines Comme on lit dans le ciel les étoiles lointaines Comme au passant qui chante on reprend sa chanson J'ai tout appris de toi jusqu'au sens du frisson (Refrain) J'ai tout appris de toi pour ce qui me concerne Qu'il fait jour à midi, qu'un ciel peut être bleu, Que le bonheur n'est pas un quinquet de taverne, Tu m'as pris par la main dans cet enfer moderne Où l'homme ne sait plus ce que c'est qu'être deux, Tu m'as pris par la main comme un amant heureux. (Refrain) Qui parle de bonheur a souvent les yeux tristes N'est-ce pas un sanglot de la déconvenue Une corde brisée aux doigts du guitariste Et pourtant je vous dis que le bonheur existe Ailleurs que dans le rêve ailleurs que dans les nues Terre, terre, voici ses rades inconnues (Refrain)

WHAT WOULD I BE WITHOUT YOU? (Chorus) What would I be without you who came to meet me What would I be without you but a heart in the sleeping wood* But this time stopped on the clock dial What would I be without you but this faltering I've learned everything from you about the human things And from now on, I've seen the world your way. I've learned everything from you as one drinks from fountains As one reads in the sky, the distant stars As you pick up his song from the singing passer-by, I've learned everything from you even the meaning of shiver (Chorus) I have learned everything from you as far as I'm concerned That it's daylight at noon, that a sky can be blue That happiness isn't just a tavern's oil lamp You took me by the hand in that modern hell Where man no more knows what it is to be two You took me by the hand like a happy lover (Chorus) Who talks of happiness often has sad eyes Isn't it a sob of disappointment, A broken string at the guitarist's fingers? And nevertheless, I tell you that happiness exists Elsewhere than in the dreams, elsewhere than in heaven Land! Land! Here are its unknown harbors.

* "au bois dormant" makes reference to the tale "Sleeping Beauty" called "La belle au bois dormant" in French, that literally translates as "The Beauty at/in the Sleeping Wood" (or actually "The Beauty in the wood, sleeping").

"Que serais-je sans toi?" is a song composed and performed by Jean Ferrat. The song consists of four stanzas taken from Louis Aragon's poem, "Prose du bonheur et d'Elsa", published in 1956 in the collection "Le Roman inachevé". "Prose du bonheur et d'Elsa", which is addressed to Elsa Triolet, wife of Aragon since 1939, is a poem composed, first of twenty-two sestets in alexandrines, then of four large stanzas of twenty-four lines of sixteen feet. To establish and give rhythm to his text, Jean Ferrat first took four lines from the fourteenth sestet, which became the refrain of the song, "What would I be without you who came to meet me..." then all of the seventeenth and eighteenth stanzas, and finally the twenty-first stanza, the whole forming a perfectly harmonious continuity. –Google translation of the song entry on French Wikipedia with some changes from me.

Jean Ferrat's live rendition
Jean Ferrat's recording


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