Dernière Danse by Indila was the first single off her debut album “Mini World.” We review the French lyrics and English translation below, and dive into the meaning of the lyrics and some vocabulary from the song.
Indila: Dernière Danse Music Video
Here is the music video for the song:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| [Couplet 1] | [Verse 1] |
| Ô ma douce souffrance | Oh my sweet suffering |
| Pourquoi s'acharner tu recommences | Why do you hound me, incessantly |
| Je ne suis qu'un être sans importance | I am just an unimportant person |
| Sans lui je suis un peu paro' | Without it I'm a bit lost |
| Je déambule seule dans le métro | I wander alone in the subway |
| Une dernière danse | A last dance |
| Pour oublier ma peine immense | To forget my immense sorrow |
| Je veux m'enfuir que tout recommence | I want to run away, for everything to begin again |
| Oh ma douce souffrance | Oh my Sweet suffering |
| [Refrain] | [Chorus] |
| Je remue le ciel le jour, la nuit | I move mountains, day and night |
| Je danse avec le vent la pluie | I dance with the wind the rain |
| Un peu d'amour, un brin de miel | A little love, a bit of honey |
| Et je danse, danse, danse, danse, danse, danse | And I dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance |
| Et dans le bruit, je cours et j'ai peur | And in the noise, I run and I'm scared |
| Est ce mon tour ? | Is it my turn? |
| Vient la douleur | Here comes the pain |
| Dans tout Paris, je m’abandonne | Throughout Paris, I abandon myself |
| Et je m'envole, vole, vole, vole, vole | And I fly, fly, fly, fly, fly |
| [Pont 1] | [Bridge 1] |
| Que d’espérance | Nothing but hope |
| Sur ce chemin en ton absence | On this path in your absence |
| J'ai beau trimer, sans toi ma vie n'est qu'un décor qui brille, vide de sens | Try as I might, without you my life is just a beautiful display, meaningless |
| [Refrain] | [Chorus] |
| Je remue le ciel le jour, la nuit | I move mountains, day and night |
| Je danse avec le vent la pluie | I dance with the wind the rain |
| Un peu d'amour, un brin de miel | A little love, a bit of honey |
| Et je danse, danse, danse, danse, danse, danse | And I dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance |
| Et dans le bruit, je cours et j'ai peur | And in the noise, I run and I'm scared |
| Est ce mon tour ? | Is it my turn? |
| Vient la douleur | Here comes the pain |
| Dans tout Paris, je m’abandonne | Throughout Paris, I abandon myself |
| Et je m'envole, vole, vole, vole, vole | And I fly, fly, fly, fly, fly |
| [Pont 2] | [Bridge 2] |
| Dans cette douce souffrance | In this sweet suffering |
| Dont j'ai payé toutes les offenses | I paid for all the offences |
| Écoute comme mon cœur est immense | Listen as my heart is immense |
| Je suis une enfant du monde | I am a child of the world |
| [Refrain] | [Chorus] |
| Je remue le ciel le jour, la nuit | I move mountains, day and night |
| Je danse avec le vent la pluie | I dance with the wind the rain |
| Un peu d'amour un brin de miel | A bit of love a bit of honey |
| Et je danse, danse, danse, danse, danse, danse | And I dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance |
| Et dans le bruit, je cours et j'ai peur | And in the noise, I run and I'm scared |
| Est ce mon tour? | Is it my turn? |
| Vient la douleur... | Here comes the pain... |
| Dans tout Paris, je m’abandonne | In all of Paris, I abandon myself |
| Et je m'envole, vole, vole, vole, vole | And I fly, fly, fly, fly, fly |
Dernière Danse by Indila: Lyrics Breakdown & Explanation
In order to really understand the lyrics, we need to know a bit about Indila. Although she has kept a lot of her life story private, Indila has described herself as a “child of the world” of Algerian descent, but also with heritage from Cambodia, India, and Egypt. Indila has sung in French, English, and also Hindi. Indila has said that she chose “Indila” as her stage name because of her love for India. Indila wrote Dernière Danse with her husband Skalpovich, the French DJ-turned-producer.
Although Indila is quite reserved in interviews, she talks about her struggle to fit the size of her emotions into words in her songs. In a 2014 interview she discussed how early on when she was writing songs she struggled because all the words seemed “too small” for the emotions she was trying to convey.
Interestingly, in the same interview she says that Dernière Danse was the first song that she wrote on her album, and that once she had written it, the rest of the album flowed very naturally.
Dernière Danse is about the emotions that a young immigrant woman feels in Paris, having to cope with racism and discrimination day in and day out.
Let’s have a look at some of the lyrics to dive deeper. Here’s the lyrics video if you want to follow along.
First Verse
In this verse Indila addresses her suffering, and through the use of a phonetic resemblance she indicates that the source of her suffering is France (or likely the people of France). This is also apparent in the music video, where the opening of the song and most of the first verse consists of acts of cruelty and indifference visited upon Indila by the people of Paris, at times indiscriminately.
Oh ma douce souffrance
In the first verse Indila personifies her suffering, addressing it directly as “Ô ma douce souffrance,” which translates to “oh my sweet suffering.” This line also sounds like the title of a famous French expression (and song) “douce France” (sweet France). By invoking this reference to France, she links the expression of her suffering to the nation of France. Additionally, she is playing with juxtaposition by pairing the words “sweet” and “suffering” together.
Pourquoi s’acharner tu recommences
I’ve translated this as “why do you hound, incessantly” because “s’acharner” is translated in completely different ways depending on the context. It can be translated as “to insist,” “to attack,” “to harass,” “to carry out a smear campaign,” (yes really) and many others. It basically means that someone is receiving some form of unwanted and negative attention in a really aggressive and on-going way. So here Indila is saying that her suffering is hounding her, and that it continue on and on.
Paro
The term “paro” is a slang term popularized by the rapper Kery James. It has several meanings, but in this case it means that Indila feels uncomfortable and ill at ease. She is wandering around the Paris Métro (subway) feeling anxious.
Then Indila speaks of “a last dance” to “forget her immense sorrow.” What is the last dance exactly? Well let’s look at the chorus.
CHORUS
Je remue le ciel le jour, la nuit
This literally translates as “I move the sky, the day, the night” but the expression “Remuer le ciel et terre,” literally “to mix earth and sky” and is like the English expression “to move mountains.” So I’ve translated it as “I move mountains, day and night.” What Indila is saying is that she is working VERY hard. Beyond just mixing earth and sky she is mixing sky, day, and night.
The chorus contrasts a lot of city imagery (wandering alone in the metro) with a lot of nature imagery. Now Indila is dancing in the wind and rain. She is getting a bit of love and a bit of honey.
But she is still running away from something – and is still scared, but she dances any way, losing herself in Paris.
In the video we can see clearly that what she is running from is experiences of indifference, which may well we motivated by racism towards people of North African descent. Later in the song Indila remarks that she is “a child of the world” – a descriptor used in French by people whose parents are foreigners or who is mixed-race. In Indila’s case she is the child of foreigners and is mixed-race (she describes herself as having Algerian, Egyptian, Indian, and Cambodian heritage).
When she asks “is it my turn?” it reminds me of the line in the Little Mermaid’s song “Part of Your World” when Ariel asks “when’s it my turn? Wouldn’t I love… love to explore the shores up above.” It may seem like a strange comparison, but both songs contain big feelings of longing, although in Indila’s case it seems like what she is longing for is acceptance within Paris.
I also want to take a moment here to compare the first verse and the chorus sonically.
The beginning of the song has this very light-hearted, bouncy and upbeat melody, which eventually gives way to the very powerful and dramatic chorus. I get the sense that Indila is the sort of person who seems very calm and collected on the outside, but has these huge powerful emotions on the inside.
The first verse is about what she looks like on the outside – she is wandering in the metro, and maybe to an outside observer she looks fine, cheerful even, maybe like she is daydreaming.
But then we get to the chorus and she lets loose with her powerful voice to describe the very strong emotions that are tearing her apart.
I LOVE that in the video she is made powerful – she isn’t alone in being terrorized by her own feelings of alienation and sadness, she externalizes them into a storm that terrorizes all of Paris so that they can all feel the terror and despair that SHE feels all the time.
OK let’s have a quick look at Bridges 1 and 2.
Bridge 1
Here Indila is addressing someone, lamenting how hopeless her life is without them (or it)? It’s not 100% clear here if she is upset about the loss of a person, or about something she is missing in life (dignity? Respect? Inclusion?).
Bridge 2
I love this part – here she is essentially saying that she has paid for “all her offences” with her suffering and I feel that the implication is that she has paid for some offences that may not have been hers to bear (e.g. she “pays for” Parisians negative views of North Africans/people who look like Indila/immigrants). And yet she wants to remind us that she has a huge heart that feels all these slights and is hurt by her harsh treatment.
According to the rhyming structure of the last word of each line (souffrance, offenses, immense) we would expect her to say “Je suis un enfant de France” (I’m a child of France), but instead she says “Je suis un enfant du monde” (I’m a child of the world). This is an expression used to describe children who are mixed race or whose parents are foreigners (not French).
So here Indila is proudly proclaiming that she is a child of the world, in a place where we might expect her to assert that she is a child of France. Sorry France, you could have had Indila (who was born and raised in France) but at least in this song she is fed up with Parisiens and so she is a child of the world, not of France. 😉
What do you think of this song? Do you love this video as much as I do? Indila is a pretty good actress – the look she gets at 1:39 – GIRL that is some great face acting! I 100% believe she would summon a storm to rain down on Paris.
Lui means him and ciel in sky not mountains
Lui could be translated as “it” or “him.” It’s not subjective.
And you’re correct, “ciel,” means “sky,” not mountains. But if you read the explanation of the translation of this song, you’ll see that the interpreter chooses to translate this French saying into English by translating it into a saying we well know of, making it more understandable to the English audience.
Excellent. This analysis takes into consideration the role of lyrics and melody to covey emotions of singer in a BEAUTIFUL way. Thanks for this translation….
My pleasure! Thank you for taking the time to comment! 🙂
Oh fantastic interpretation to the song thank you so much for the vision you gave us and made me love the song even more 🙂 just brilliant!
Thank you so much! 🙂
This is a fantastic blog, glad I found it!
I listened to French songs on Pandora to prepare for a trip there, and continued even after I came home, but never had access to this fruity depth of understanding before.
Thank you for your work!
My pleasure Lisa! Thank you for taking the time to comment! 🙂
Darby you are such a wonderful human being! I am so happy I found your blog, as I am, just like you, madly in love with this beautiful language. Bless you!
Awww thanks Lydia, that’s so sweet! I do love the French language, which is probably good as I’m marrying a Frenchman. But I started this blog many years before I met him. I had the good fortune to be born in Canada and have the opportunity to be in the French Immersion program at school from the age of 12. I’m glad you enjoyed this post. I do post new songs, very slowly but surely so be sure to check back. 🙂
hey can you make a romanized version of these lyrics
Wow I just love your explanations on each of the songs you write I couldnt help myself but to also thank you for pouring this passion of yours into words. It has made me appreciate so much more each song. Thank you.
I’m so glad that you enjoyed the translation. 🙂
That was excellent. Oh… many thanks for your good translation for this beautiful music.
You’re very welcome! 🙂
Thank you for the translation I heard the young Russian girl Diana Ankudinova signing this song and loved it so had to find out who the original singer was and you have giving me a much better understanding of this beautiful powerful and emotional song.
My pleasure – I’m glad that you enjoyed it! 🙂
Omg this is the best song i have heard i loooooove it
I love this song too! 🙂
Merci beaucoup!
really , great job !!!
What a voice! What a song! Thank you for your interpretations. She is so full of emotion and her voice expresses what she Feels. Beautiful person!
Yes this is a beautiful song! I’m glad that you enjoyed the translation!
Darby, thank you, I love this song and this is a very nice translation. I do have a number of comments on the translation, but will just leave the following two, as some food for thought:
“Pourquoi s’acharner tu recommences”
-I personally think the most likely intended meaning is:
“Why struggle, you start again” (i.e., why struggle to try to make the suffering stop, it just starts again).
-[Alternatively, the meaning could parallel that of the verse “J’ai beau trimer, sans toi ma vie n’est qu’un décor qui brille, vide de sens” (see below), given that both “s’acharner” and “trimer” are terms that are often used in the context of working very hard at one’s job. And in the general context, one expects an immigrant to be working very hard, at multiple jobs perhaps.]
“J’ai beau trimer, sans toi ma vie . . [est] vide de sens.”
-I personally think the most likely intended meaning is::
“However hard I slave away (working), without you my life . . . [is] devoid of meaning.”
The idea might be that working hard might normally give one’s life meaning, but in her case (without “toi”) her life feels meaningless. Alternatively, she might be throwing herself into her work in order to try to give her life meaning, but (without “toi”) it continues to feel meaningless. Alternatively, she might be throwing herself into her work just in order to try to forget about her suffering (resulting from being without “toi”), but nevertheless her life feels meaningless (and so the suffering continues).
Your comment above:
“Je remue le ciel le jour, la nuit
This literally translates as “I move the sky, the day, the night” but the expression “Remuer le ciel et terre,” literally “to mix earth and sky” and is like the English expression “to move mountains.” So I’ve translated it as “I move mountains, day and night.” What Indila is saying is that she is working VERY hard. Beyond just mixing earth and sky she is mixing sky, day, and night.”
I think the most likely intended meaning of the verse is:
“I move [the] heaven, during the day, at night.”
The French expression “remuer ciel et terre” can and would be literally translated as “move heaven and earth”, identical to the English expression. If Indila chose to use only the first half of the well known French expression, there is no reason not to do the same in English–“move heaven”.
Now the explanation might be as follows: as a ‘lowly’ and poor immigrant, she is presumably powerless to “move [anything on] earth”–i.e., powerless to do anything on earth to improve/fix her situation. However, she always has the ability to try to move heaven [by prayer]. The meaning of the verse would be that she has tried to petition heaven for assistance; but notwithstanding, it seems that her problems continue.
Also, it would not make sense to say moving day and night, and there is no such expression. She is not moving day and night, she is moving heaven (during the) day, (at) night.
Please note that there is a mistake in your translation of:
“Dans cette douce souffrance
Dont j’ai payé toutes les offenses,”
as
“In this sweet suffering,I paid for all the offences”
and similarly in your explanation:
“she is essentially saying that she has paid for “all her offences” with her suffering . . . “:
The mistake is that the offenses referred to are NOT “her offences”, they are the offences committed by her sweet suffering (against her).
The literal and correct (though heavy sounding) translation is:
“In this sweet suffering
All of whose offenses I paid for”.
The point is that (1) she has paid for (2) all the offenses (3) committed (against her) by her sweet suffering. The French “dont” is unambiguous and relates “toute les offenses” back to her “douce souffrance”.
Now as far as an explanation goes, what is unusual is that typically a person personally pays for an offense that he/she committed. For example, “the murderer paid for his offense by being executed.”
In the case of the song however, her sweet suffering has committed many offenses (presumably by making her suffer), but yet she is the one who is having to pay for those offenses (instead of her sweet suffering–who is not being held to account, so to speak).
So not only is she suffering, but she is having to pay for that suffering, presumably with other bad things happening to her, engendered by her suffering. Perhaps similar in idea to the legal term “consequential damages”.
Darby, thank you very much for this interpretation and analysis. It adds marvellously to understanding of the beautiful video and artist, as well as giving insight to the culture.
If every song came with such great packaging everyone would no longer have time to go to work as we would be too busy being in love with art.
I know French and so understand the words, but interesting to hear your interpretation of the meaning and also of the narrative in the video.
Given her ethnic background and influences, it could be about her experience of racism and prejudice, but not necessarily…
My interpretation was that it is about the ending of a love affair – so the ‘lui’ referred to is her former lover, and also that the ex lover is the man in the car who is with his wife, who has found out about the love affair – going by the body language and looks exchanged between the two women in the clip.
The older woman throwing her out on the street may also be linked in some way – possibly throwing her out onto the street because of her transgression….
That would then give a more literal meaning to her ‘offences’…
But she finds her strength and learns to face her fears, symbolised by the black cloud that everyone else is running away from, and then rises above it all and gains a higher perspective that sets her free as she finally lets go of the memory….
I think the suitcase also signifies that she is on an emotional journey – she re-appears still carrying it in a follow on video to the song Tourner Dans La Vide which also has the theme of going against the norms of society by seemingly preferring a working man – a sculptor, to ‘prince charming’ who she rejects…
I agree with your interpretation that there is a strong element of lost love in song. While there may be elements of prejudice incorporated, it is not as overt that presented by this interpretation. It was an overreach to superimpose “souffrance” and “France.” After all, this is not exactly an original term. In “A Short History of Russian Music (p. 184),” Arthur Pougin attributes “O douce souffrance” to Tchaikovsky (who’s music could be said to have influenced Indila). Author and poet Willy Procida published “Douce Souffrance” in 1999. Neither Tchaikovsky nor Procida addressed bigotry.
Grammatically speaking, “lui” in “sans lui je suis un peu paro” is preceded by a preposition and the subject was “souffrance,” making the interpretation “he/she” (or it). Therefore, she is saying that without her sweet suffering she is isolated (pero) as she walks aimlessly alone (continuing the theme of isolated) in the metro. But we must consider that she is an artist trying to capture an emotion, not attempting to describe something that is solid or tangible. As you state, the video gives us clues (the assertion of an affair may or may not be intended), but it would appear that the photo suggests some type of lost love.
For these reasons, I do not believe that she is trying to make a statement or change Paris. What she has done is capture the essence of “sweet sorrow.” She is expressing her sense of loss, loneliness, and isolation with her break-up, and the city is the stage.
In the end, our interpretations of the authors meaning are likely futile efforts to capture something that never had defined boundaries.
Indila raconte la signification de son hit Dernière Danse
I love the translation. In reading along i found i could understand a lot of the words being that i can speak spanish also. I love the song and knew it had a deep meaning. You did a great job at interpreting the video too and it all made sense. In the line where she is living on ‘love and honey’ , I feel she is saying the bare minimum that is keeping her alive and hopeful is her positive attitude and getting what little love and affection she can find in a cruel harsh city.
Her facial expression stunned me… it really made me feel how much of her soul went into the song itself. Great job again!
Yo i’m half French,Half Mexican Half Spaniard and possibly a bit of Italian
I love it. This really helps I can now sing the whole song.
I really enjoy this song and the singer too!
Thanks for your translates.
Thanks againg for your translates.
More and more.
The song is awesome but French is hard for me, but finally i got the mining
Im so glad to find yr translation.it really helps me to find out many things.
Its a big story behind that but i want you to know that its much to me.
Im not french or even english speakers .but now i live in france and try to learn french and improve my english skill.
But the important part is that i have the same feelings. So sad to be immigrat and traet by others like a foreigne ,no job no friends here.
(Je suisTellement trist mais heureus d’etre ici )
Sorry it takes you time to read but now i feel a little free bcs i know someone somewhere has experienced my feelings.
(Merci beaucoup mon amie tu es trés gentil et sage que je t’adore sans tu voir. Bisu)
I still try to find someone to speak french even some words.
Thnks body❤
Such a wonderful explanation of a beautiful song. Keep it going👏🏻👏🏻
Thank you for your fantastic analysis! I just found this song and instantly loved it! The music video was a total immersive experience for me, too, and with this added understanding you’ve provided here, I’m even more in love with Indila! So thank you thank you for deepening my appreciation for her art and musical talent!
Excellent one. Just loved it. Currently I am learning French through songs and is a nice experience, for I did the same when I learnt English.
I have been to France for 6 years and this song expresses exactly my feelings as well.
The translation and French expressions are beautifully blended. Congrats to the writer.
N thxx for sharing.
Hello Fellow Canadian. Much appreciate your insight on the Last Dance video. This is an excellent explanation. Lived the song and loved your explanation. Perhaps only a Canadian can be so liberal to do justice in such a way to explain the song. Perhaps you can add mire about the video where Indila is swollen by the shear floods at least in her dreams, and also the use of words honey, love and sweetness she attributes to her Paris.