Mes mains

Gilbert Bécaud's song 'Mes mains' (translated as 'My Hands') is a poignant exploration of love, loss, and longing. The lyrics are deeply emotional, using the metaphor of hands to convey the narrator's feelings and memories. Bécaud's hands are not just physical appendages; they are vessels of emotion, carriers of past joys, and symbols of an unfulfilled desire for reunion. The song's melancholic tone is set from the beginning, as the hands 'draw in the evening the shape of a hope that resembles your body,' indicating a yearning for a lost lover.

The hands in the song are depicted as trembling with fever, caressing memories, and reaching out in prayer. These actions symbolize the intense emotional and physical connection the narrator once had with their lover. The hands remember the brief but passionate love affair, and they continue to seek joy and solace in the remnants of that relationship. The repeated imagery of hands reaching out, trembling, and praying underscores the depth of the narrator's longing and the pain of separation.

As the song progresses, the hands become a symbol of both hope and despair. They are described as loving 'to madness' and 'for life,' yet they also express anger and frustration at the lover's absence. The narrator questions whether the lover has forgotten the past and the sacrifices made. The hands, once instruments of love and tenderness, now tremble with anger and helplessness. The plea for the lover to return, so the hands can once again 'tremble for you in the joy regained,' encapsulates the central theme of the song: the enduring power of love and the deep sorrow of its loss.