Mon Frère – Bilingual Lyrics French/English

• By: Maxime le Forestier

Lyrics & Translation

[French]

[English]

Toi, le frère que je n'ai jamais eu

You, the brother I never had

Sais-tu si tu avais vécu

Do you know, if you had lived

Ce que nous aurions fait ensemble?

What we would have done together?

Un an après moi tu serais né

You would have been born a year after me

Alors on n'se serait plus quittés

Then we would never have left each other

Comme deux amis qui se ressemblent

Like two friends who are alike

On aurait appris l'argot par coeur

We would have learned slang by heart

J'aurais été ton professeur

I would have been your teacher

À mon école buissonnière

At my informal lessons

Sûr qu'un jour on se serait battus

For sure one day we would have fought

Pour peu qu'alors on ait connu

Provided that we had then known

Ensemble la même première

The same first time together

Mais tu n'es pas là

But you're not here

À qui la faute?

Whose fault is it?

Pas à mon père

Not my father's

Pas à ma mère

Not my mother's

Tu aurais pu chanter cela

You could have sung that

Toi, le frère que je n'ai jamais eu

You, the brother I never had

Si tu savais ce que j'ai bu

If you knew how much I've drowned

De mes chagrins en solitaire

My sorrows in solitude

Si tu ne m'avais pas fait faux-bond

If you hadn't let me down

Tu aurais fini mes chansons

You would have finished my songs

Je t'aurais appris à en faire

I would have taught you how to make them

Si la vie s'était comportée mieux

If life had behaved better

Elle aurait divisé en deux

It would have divided in two

Les paires de gants, les paires de claques

The pairs of gloves, the pairs of slaps

Elle aurait sûrement partagé

It would surely have shared

Les mots d'amour et les pavés

The words of love and the cobblestones

Les filles et les coups de matraque

The girls and the baton blows

Mais tu n'es pas là

But you're not here

À qui la faute?

Whose fault is it?

Pas à mon père

Not my father's

Pas à ma mère

Not my mother's

Tu aurais pu chanter cela

You could have sung that

Toi, le frère que je n'aurai jamais

You, the brother I will never have

Je suis moins seul de t'avoir fait

I am less alone for having created you

Pour un instant, pour une fille

For an instant, for a girl

Je t'ai dérangé, tu me pardonnes?

I bothered you, do you forgive me?

Ici quand tout vous abandonne

Here when everything abandons you

On se fabrique une famille

We make ourselves a family

...

...

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
frère /fʁɛʁ/ A2	noun - brother
école /ɛkɔl/ A2	noun - school
quittés /kita/ B1	verb (past participle) - to leave each other verb (past participle) - to be separated
mère /mɛʁ/ A2	noun - mother
père /pɛʁ/ A2	noun - father
chagrins /ʃa.gʁɛ̃/ B2	noun - sorrows, regrets
faux-bond /fo bɔ̃/ C1	noun - broken promise, betrayal
famille /fa.mij/ A2	noun - family
abandonne /a.bɑ̃.dɔ.nɛ/ B2	verb - to abandon, to give up
fabric /fa.bʁik/ C1	noun - fabric, material
divisé /di.vi.ze/ C2	verb (past participle) - to divide, to split
mots /mo/ A2	noun - words
amour /a.muʁ/ A1	noun - love

Key Grammar Structures

• Sais-tu si tu avais vécu

  ➔ Use of the imperfect subjunctive tense in 'avais vécu' to express hypothetical or non-real situations.

  ➔ The phrase 'avais vécu' is in the imperfect subjunctive tense, which in French is used for hypothetical or unreal conditions.

• On aurait appris l'argot par coeur

  ➔ Use of 'aurait appris' (conditional perfect) to indicate a hypothetical past action.

  ➔ The phrase 'aurait appris' is the conditional perfect tense, indicating a hypothetical action that could have happened under different circumstances.

• Elle aurait divisé en deux

  ➔ Use of 'aurait divisé' (conditional perfect) to express a hypothetical division.

  ➔ The phrase 'aurait divisé' employs the conditional perfect tense to describe a hypothetical action of dividing something into two parts.

• On se fabrique une famille

  ➔ Use of the reflexive pronoun 'se' with the verb 'fabrique' to indicate an action done by oneself, here meaning 'to create' or 'to make' a family.

  ➔ The phrase 'On se fabrique une famille' employs the reflexive pronoun 'se' to show that the subject creates or builds a family for themselves.

• Tu ne m'avais pas fait faux-bond

  ➔ Use of the pluperfect tense 'm'avais fait' to describe an action that was supposed to happen in the past but did not, with 'faux-bond' meaning 'stand me up' or 'disappoint'.

  ➔ The phrase 'tu ne m'avais pas fait faux-bond' uses the pluperfect tense to express that the person did not stand the speaker up in the past, contrary to what might have been expected.