Mon Frère – Bilingual Lyrics French/English

• By: Maxime le Forestier

Lyrics & Translation

Discover the profound emotional landscape of Maxime Le Forestier's iconic song 'Mon frère.' Through its heartfelt lyrics and gentle folk melody, you can explore themes of longing, imagination, and the universal desire for connection, offering a unique glimpse into the French chanson tradition.

[English]

You, the brother I never had

Do you know, if you had lived

What we would have done together?

You would have been born a year after me

Then we would never have left each other

Like two friends who are alike

We would have learned slang by heart

I would have been your teacher

At my informal lessons

For sure one day we would have fought

Provided that we had then known

The same first time together

But you're not here

Whose fault is it?

Not my father's

Not my mother's

You could have sung that

You, the brother I never had

If you knew how much I've drowned

My sorrows in solitude

If you hadn't let me down

You would have finished my songs

I would have taught you how to make them

If life had behaved better

It would have divided in two

The pairs of gloves, the pairs of slaps

It would surely have shared

The words of love and the cobblestones

The girls and the baton blows

But you're not here

Whose fault is it?

Not my father's

Not my mother's

You could have sung that

You, the brother I will never have

I am less alone for having created you

For an instant, for a girl

I bothered you, do you forgive me?

Here when everything abandons you

We make ourselves a family

...

[French]

Toi, le frère que je n'ai jamais eu

Sais-tu si tu avais vécu

Ce que nous aurions fait ensemble?

Un an après moi tu serais né

Alors on n'se serait plus quittés

Comme deux amis qui se ressemblent

On aurait appris l'argot par coeur

J'aurais été ton professeur

À mon école buissonnière

Sûr qu'un jour on se serait battus

Pour peu qu'alors on ait connu

Ensemble la même première

Mais tu n'es pas là

À qui la faute?

Pas à mon père

Pas à ma mère

Tu aurais pu chanter cela

Toi, le frère que je n'ai jamais eu

Si tu savais ce que j'ai bu

De mes chagrins en solitaire

Si tu ne m'avais pas fait faux-bond

Tu aurais fini mes chansons

Je t'aurais appris à en faire

Si la vie s'était comportée mieux

Elle aurait divisé en deux

Les paires de gants, les paires de claques

Elle aurait sûrement partagé

Les mots d'amour et les pavés

Les filles et les coups de matraque

Mais tu n'es pas là

À qui la faute?

Pas à mon père

Pas à ma mère

Tu aurais pu chanter cela

Toi, le frère que je n'aurai jamais

Je suis moins seul de t'avoir fait

Pour un instant, pour une fille

Je t'ai dérangé, tu me pardonnes?

Ici quand tout vous abandonne

On se fabrique une famille

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.