What is the song 'Je marche seul' about?

Question

This song is performed by Jean-Jacques Goldman, somewhere in the 80's. It's French and I am curious what the story of the song is. What is it about? 10 points for the best answer. Thank you!

Answer 1

Comme un bateau dérive = like a boat that drifts

Sans but et sans mobile = without goal and without motive

Je marche dans la ville = I walk in the city

Tout seul et anonyme = lonely and anonymous

La ville et ses pièges = the city and its snares

Ce sont mes privilèges = they are my privileges

Je suis riche de ça = I'm rich with this

Mais ça ne s'achète pas = but this can't be bought

Et j'm'en fous, j'm'en fous de tout = And I don't care, I don't care about everything

De ces chaînes qui pendent à nos cous = about these chains that hang at our necks

J'm'enfuis, j'oublie = I run away, I forget

Je m'offre une parenthèse, un sursis = I offer myself a parenthesis (a pause), a reprieve

Je marche seul = I walk alone

Dans les rues qui se donnent = in the streets that offer themselves to me

Et la nuit me pardonne, je marche seul = And the night forgives me

En oubliant les heures, = forgetting the hours (that go by)

Je marche seul = I walk alone

Sans témoin, sans personne = with no witness, with nobody

Que mes pas qui résonnent, je marche seul = but my steps which resound

Acteur et voyeur = acting and looking (at everything)

Se rencontrer, séduire = meeting, seducing

Quand la nuit fait des siennes = when the night goes and does it again

Promettre sans le dire = promising without saying it

Juste des yeux qui traînent = only eyes that hang about (the streets)

Oh, quand la vie s'obstine = oh when life is stubborn

En ces heures assasines = during these treacherous hours

Je suis riche de ça = I'm rich with this

Mais ça ne s'achète pas = But this can't be bought

Et j'm'en fous, j'm'en fous de tout  (--> see above "I don't care)

De ces chaînes qui pendent à nos cous

J'm'enfuis, j'oublie

Je m'offre une parenthèse, un sursis

Je marche seul (--> repetition of words above)

Dans les rues qui se donnent

Et la nuit ma pardonne, je marche seul

En oubliant les heures,

Je marche seul

Sans témoin, sans personne

Que mes pas qui résonnent, je marche seul

Acteur et voyeur

Je marche seul = I walk alone

Quand ma vie déraisonne = when my life is unreasonbale

Quand l'envie m'abandonne = when desire lets me down

Je marche seul = I walk alone

Pour me noyer d'ailleurs = to drown myself, besides

Je marche seul... = I walk alone

I tried to give a personal translation of the song, hopes it makes sense, because even in French some sentences may be difficult to understand in their meaning.

Probably someone who feels depressed and walks alone in the streets to forget his difficult life for a moment that way.

Answer 2

about a loser who is lost in his own world, I guess

Answer 3

It's a song of escape. When daytime necessities ("the chains that hang around our necks") become too oppressive, the subject of the song goes walking alone at night, like a rudderless boat set free from its moorings, anonymous and liberated from the world's judgmental pressures, still a participant in life but also an unconcerned observer. It's a way to step outside himself for a while for a little respite, but it's more like a suspended sentence than an absolution.

Or at least that's my take. Here's a rough translation:

Like an aimlessly

drifting boat, becalmed,

I walk around town

alone and unknown.

The city's pitfalls:

these are my birthrights,

these things make me rich,

but they can't be bought.

And I don't give a d**n about anything,

not these chains that hang around our necks,

I flee and forget it all.

I take a time-out, a respite,

I walk alone

in the surrendering streets

and the night forgives me,

I walk alone,

forgetting the time,

I walk alone,

unwitnessed, with no company

but my echoing footsteps,

both actor and audience.

Chance meetings, random charms,

when night does what it does,

wordlessly promising

only languid eyes.

Oh, when life is headstrong

and I have hours to kill,

these things make me rich,

but they can't be bought.

And I don't give a d**n about anything,

not these chains that hang around our necks,

I flee and forget it all.

I take a time-out, a respite,

I walk alone

in the surrendering streets

and the night forgives me,

I walk alone,

forgetting the time,

I walk alone,

unwitnessed, with no company

but my echoing footsteps,

both actor and audience.

I walk alone

when my life makes no sense,

when cravings desert me,

I walk alone,

to submerge my self, too,

I walk alone.

Answer 4

i have no clue but when i read the comments above it sounds like a great song

Answer 5

When the song was released as a single, Goldman explained in various interviews that the song was very hard to compose. It evokes the idea of walking alone in order to escape and forget all the problems, and also the pleasure to be an anonymous person. He said that "Je marche seul" is a bright song because according to him "the loneliness is not a punishment

The music video was well-received in the media at the time. It shows Goldman portraying a renegade from the Eastern Europe who has an affair in a train that crosses the border