Translation of the song lyrics Les Bons Moments - Charles Aznavour

Les Bons Moments (original)

Nous avons eu de bons moments
Nous avons eu de grands moments
De folles joies d'étranges peines
A vivre ensemble
Nous étions gorgés de printemps
Et fiers d'étaler nos vingt ans
Que les feux de l’amour
Et le désir rassemblent
Un jour riche, un jour sans un sou
Nous étions heureux malgré tout
Car jour et nuit brûlait en nous
Cet amour fou qui nous ressemble
Bien sûr, le bonheur est mouvant
Mais laisse au cœur des amants
Nous avons eu de bons moments
Nous avons eu de grands moments
Des crépuscules clairs
Des aubes grises ensemble
Nous étions jeunes et insouciants
Et vivions comme des enfants
Que les jours de la vie
Et les rêves rassemblent
Mais aujourd’hui mon triste cœur
Laisse ta peine oublie ta peur
Car bien que notre amour se meure
Sèche tes pleurs car il me semble
Qu’il vaut mieux dire en se quittant
Nous avons eu pour quelque temps
De bons moments, de bons moments

Les Bons Moments (translation)

We have known hours ripe as orchard fruit,
We have scaled heights where days become pure flame,
Mad exultations, sorrows oddly hued,
All in the weave of sharing breath and name,
We brimmed with April’s honey-light within,
And wore our twenty years like crowns of dew,
Where love’s conflagration, fierce and undisciplined,
And longing, wild as rivers, gathered us anew,
One sun-blessed day, then one of empty hands—
Yet happiness was ours, despite the storms,
For day and night, a blaze within us fanned,
That reckless love, in which our souls took form,
Of course, joy’s current shifts without a trace,
But leaves its salt upon the lovers’ core,
We have known hours ripe as orchard fruit,
We have scaled heights where days become pure flame,
Clear dusk unfurled its silken veil for us,
And dawns, ash-grey, we wandered through as one,
We were the young—untethered, luminous—
And dwelled amidst the world as children run,
The living days, with dreams in gentle tow,
Would gather us with hands of mist and gold,
But now, my heart lies sodden, heavy, low—
Let go your grief, dear, let your terrors fold,
For even as our passion wilts away,
Dry your tears, for it seems to me at last,
That, parting, we are wisest if we say:
We had, for a while, the fortune to have grasped—
Some good hours, some good hours, before they passed