Between the French lyrics

This is a 2024 modernised version of Boris Vian’s famous protest song by Gauvain Sers.
The sound was recorded from a live studio on French National and publicly funded radio.

As in the previous versions, the song takes the form of a letter to the President of the Republic. Emmanuel Macron, in this case. And pleads with the leader to consider the everyday man. Using social issues of the time.
Boris Vian wrote his song in 1954, during the first Indo-China war and presented himself as a young man who refused to answer the call to the army. It was a pacifist stance and mentioned French issues of the time.
Renaud maintained a deserter persona and refused to join the army for his then-mandatory service. But his version included a more engaged left-wing and anarchist stance. Renaud also used colloquial language to represent the alternative young people at the end of the 1970’s.
Gauvain Sers is a more tamed version, but using the same principle of writing a letter to the President to highlight political, social, ecological and economic issues of the 2010’s-2020’s

Introduction

“Monsieur le Président, je prends la plume aujourd’hui” (Mr. President, I am setting pen to paper)
“J’ai l’espoir qu’une lettre sera peut-être lue (I hope a letter may be read)
Quand le bruit sous vos fenêtres, vous ne l’entendez plus” (When you can no longer hear the noise below your window)
Je prends ma plume translates literally as “I take my feather”, a French expression meaning putting pen to paper.

“Monsieur le président, seriez-vous dur d’oreille (Mr. President, may you be hard of hearing?)
Pour bafouer si longtemps un boucan sans pareil? (To shrug off the unrivalled uproar for this long?)
C’est le peuple qui gronde, qui occupe vos boulevards (It is the people who are rumbling, who take to your boulevards)
Pendant que la bête immonde se rapproche du pouvoir” (Whilst the vile beast is rising closer to the top)
Dur d’oreille, in French, one is not hard of hearing but hard of the ear.
Faire du boucan is an informal French expression that would translate to “Make a racket”, as in making noise.
Le peuple qui gronde: Gronder translates to growl, most commonly used for the noise made by a dog or the noise of thunder rumbling.
Qui occupe vos boulevards? Translates literally as to occupy your boulevards, or to take to the streets in English.
La bête immonde translates as the vile beast. The song was released at a time when the far right is rising in France.

Furthermore, the mention of the Vile Beast makes reference to Bertolt Brecht’s famous line from after the fall of Nazi Germany:
Le ventre est encore fécond d’où a surgi la bête immonde.” (“The womb is still fertile from which the foul beast sprang.”)

The following paragraphs are about Key workers.
Gauvain Sers then mentions the “forgotten” key workers, who are the very people who elected the President.
“Monsieur le président, refusez-vous de voir (Mr. President, are you refusing to acknowledge)
Ceux qui vous ont, un temps, choisi dans l’isoloir? (Those who once upon a time chose you at the polling booth)
C’est l’infirmière de garde qui ne compte plus ses pleurs (It is the nurse on the night shift who can no longer count her tears)
Chaque nuit quand elle regarde l’hôpital qui se meurt” (When each night, she sees the hospital dying)
“Monsieur le président, admirez les banderoles (Mr. President, take a good look at the calico)
Aux bras des enseignants qui se saignent aux écoles (around the arms of the hard-working teachers)
Se saigner literally translates as to bleed oneself. Se saigner au travail is a common French expression that could translate in English as to slave away at work.

The economic and social disconnect:
“Oubliez l’arrogance au fond de votre planque (From your hideout, drop your arrogance)
On ne dirige pas la France comme on dirige une banque (One doesn’t manage France as one would manage a bank)
“Monsieur le président, notre belle maison brûle (Mr. President, our beautiful house is burning down)
Il est fini le temps des magouilles, des calculs” (The time of the racket and computations is over)
“Monsieur le président, et sauf votre respect (Mr. President, aside from your respect)
Vous offensez grandement votre poste au sommet” (You are insulting the high office you are holding)
“Monsieur le président, tout en haut de l’échelle (Mr. President, from your high horse)
Je vous l’accorde pourtant, la vue doit être belle (I have to say, the view must be good)
Mais descendez d’un cran et mesurez la peine (But step down a notch and see the pain for yourself)
De millions de braves gens que vos lois ne comprennent” (Millions of good folks for whom legislations do not work)
Tous en haut de l’echelle litterally translates as “from the very top of the ladder”. But as Gauvain Sers talks about the disdain of the President for his people, high horse is thus a better translation in English.
Descendre d’un cran is an informal French expression translating as come down a step.