My homage to French singer, Françoise Hardy, an important part of the soundtrack of my youth – and beyond. Diagnosed with cancer, she said in a recent interview that she couldn’t write love songs any more. When she first started making records, she also recorded English-language versions of her French songs. So I wrote this poem in French but then translated it into English for live performances with two voices. You can read the original French version in the ‘Poésie’ section of the ‘Pages françaises’ section on this site.
She no longer writes love songs
and that was all she wrote about.
Love:
mad love
disappointed love
tender love
anticipated love
dangerous love
joyous love
wounding love
flowering love.
All the love has been pushed out of that little heart of hers.
Cancer, that tuneless melody,
has crushed all the love, all the songs.
The 1960s:
The birth of the Yé Yé
a youthful dream on the Left bank
the paradise of Paris
the cliche of Clichy
Disques Vogue, Disque Bleu
an unfiltered life
All of my friends that I happen to see are facing cancer these days
Francoise
May the love songs return.