1981 – MICHEL SARDOU – Être une femme

Michel Charles Sardou, who is known by his credited stage name as Michel Sardou (1947-) is a French singer, songwriter and occasional actor.

He is known not only for his love songs (“La maladie d’amour”, “Je vais t’aimer”), but also for songs dealing with various social and political issues, such as the rights of women in Islamic countries (“Musulmanes”), clerical celibacy (“Le curé”), colonialism (“Le temps des colonies”, “Ils ont le pétrole mais c’est tout”) or the death penalty (“Je suis pour”). His 1981 single “Les lacs du Connemara” was an international hit (especially in the Netherlands). Sardou sold out eighteen consecutive dates at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in 2001, while his 2004 album Du plaisir went straight to the number one spot on the French album charts. With a recording career of fifty years, Sardou has released 25 studio albums, 18 live albums and has recorded more than 350 songs (chiefly in French but also in Spanish, Italian and even English) and has sold more than 100 million records. Currently he is considered as one of the most popular artists in the Francophone world and one of the most lucrative, both in sales and in his shows.

Dans un voyage en absurdie
Que je fais lorsque je m’ennuie
J’ai imaginé sans complexe
Qu’un matin je changeais de sexe
Que je vivais l’étrange drame
D’être une femme

On a journey of absurdity
[‘absurdie’ is an invented word to rhyme with ‘ennuie’, but it stands for ‘absurdité’]
That I do when I’m bored
I imagined without inhibition
That one morning I changed sex
That I was living the strange drama
To be a woman

Femme des années 80
Mais femme jusqu’au bout des seins
Ayant réussi l’amalgame
De l’autorité et du charme

Woman of the 80s
But woman to the tips of her breasts
[jusqu’au bout des seins is matching the expression ‘jusqu’au bout des ongles (nails)’ and means ‘completely’; the reference to the breast makes more the point about being a ‘real sexy’ woman]
Having succeeded in amalgamating
Authority and charm

Femme des années 80
Moins Colombine qu’Arlequin
Sachant pianoter sur la gamme
Qui va du grand sourire aux larmes

Woman of the 80s
Less Columbine than Harlequin
Knowing how to tap the scale
That goes from a big smile to tears

Être un P.D.G. en bas noir
Sexy comm’autrefois les stars
Être un général d’infanterie
Rouler des patins aux conscrits

Be a CEO in black stockings
Sexy like the stars once did
To be an infantry general
French kissing the conscripts

Enceinte jusqu’au fond des yeux
Qu’on a envie d’app’ler monsieur
Être un flic ou pompier d’service
Et donner le sein à mon fils

Pregnant to the back of the eyes
That we want to call Sir
Be a cop or firefighter on duty
And breastfeed my son

Femme cinéaste écrivain
A la fois poète et mannequin
Femme panthère sous sa pelisse
Et femme banquière planquée en Suisse

Female filmmaker writer
Both poet and model
Panther woman under her pelisse
And woman banker stashed in Switzerland

Femme dévoreuse de minets
Femme directeur de cabinet
A la fois sensuelle et pudique
Et femme chirurgien esthétique

Woman who is voraciously seducing pretty boys [minets = pretty boys]
Female Committee director
Both sensual and modest
And female cosmetic surgeon

Une maîtresse Messaline
Et contremaîtresse à l’usine
Faire le matin les abattoirs
Et dans la soirée le trottoir

A mistress Messaline [name that rhymes with l’usine]
And foreman at the factory
Do the slaughterhouses in the morning
And in the evening the sidewalk [faire le trottoir = to be a prostitute]

Femme et gardien de la paix
Chauffeur de car agent secret
Femme général d’aviation
Rouler des gamelles aux plantons

Woman and police officer
Secret agent bus driver
Female aviation general
French kissing the duty officers

Être un major de promotion
Parler six langues ceinture marron
Championne du monde des culturistes
Aimer Sissi impératrice

Be the head of the year [=refers to school/studying]
Speak six languages brown belt [=refers to a level achieved in Judo]
World champion bodybuilders
Loving Sissi the Empress

Enceinte jusqu’au fond des yeux
Qu’on a envie d’app’ler monsieur
En robe du soir à talons plats
Qu’on voudrait bien app’ler papa

Pregnant to the back of the eyes
That we want to call Sir
In an evening dress with flat heels
That we would like to call daddy

Femme pilote de long-courrier
Mais femme à l’atour contrôlé
Galonnée jusqu’au porte-jarretelles
Et au stewart rouler des pelles

Female long-haul pilot
But a woman with a controlled appearance
Braided to the garter belt
French kissing the stewart

Maîtriser à fond le système
Accéder au pouvoir suprême
S’installer à la Présidence
Et de là faire bander la France

Completely master the system
Reach supreme power
Settle down to Presidency
And from there give France an erection

Femme et gardienne de prison
Chanteuse d’orchestre et franc-maçon
Une strip-teaseuse à temps perdu
Emmerdeuse comme on en fait plus

Woman and prison guard
Orchestral singer and freemason
A stripper in her spare time
Be a pain in the neck as none of this kind exists anymore

Femme conducteur d’autobus
Porte des halles vendeuse aux puces
Qu’on a envie d’appeler Georges
Mais qu’on aime bien sans soutien-gorge

Female bus driver
Porte des halles selling at the flea market
That we want to call Georges
But that we like without a bra

Femme des années 80
Mais femme jusqu’au bout des seins
Ayant réussi l’amalgame
De l’autorité et du charme

Woman of the 80s
But woman to the tips of her breasts
Having succeeded in amalgamating
Authority and charm