L'exil
Laurie Darmon
The Exile
From which east is she talking to us?
The pretty lady with memories
When she tells about her youth
On the old port of Alexandria
She was a young wise girl
While her friends danced
At every ball, on every beach
Where they all went together
And the photos scroll
On the corner of the table
I catch her fragile
Shedding a few tears
She remembers everything
The scents, the colors
Time hasn't dissolved anything
Just there in her heart
She tells me the details
The carefreeness like a fruit
That grew in battle
On the country's ground
And suddenly the silence
The immense tear
The exile
From which east is she talking to us?
When she evokes her pregnancies
Four providential kids
Raised almost blindly
Her blue-green eyes have not yet
Left the Egypt of her life
It's forever there that sleeps
The peace she feeds on
And the photos scroll
On the corner of the table
I catch her fragile
Shedding a few tears
She remembers everything
The scents, the colors
Time hasn't dissolved anything
Just there in her heart
She tells me the details
The carefreeness like a fruit
That grew in battle
On the country's ground
And suddenly the silence
The immense tear
The exile
From which east is she talking to us?
(From which east is she talking to us?)
The pretty lady with memories
(The pretty lady with memories)
Who had to forgive the sky
For forcing her to rebuild
Far on another continent
(Far on another continent)
The rituals that take years
(The rituals that take years)
To adopt yes but yet
It was the price of her freedom
The photos have aged
The black and white fades
But her oriental air has remained intact
I look at her so beautiful, small and mysterious
She is the mother of my mother
She is my happy childhood
Her accent like a cry
Testifies to the passing time
That none of these vestiges
Will leave her soul
Her nostalgia teaches me
That there is no border
The exile
