Interpretation
The lyrics of the song "Les Vieux Copains" by
Léo Ferré are about old friends who reunite after many years. They have grown old and have had many experiences. They hold hands to not fall and continue walking together. The old friends have eyes like the gray sky and see the best in the situation. They are marked by the passage of time and their gaze is cloudy when it rains in their eyes.
The singer is one of them and asks God for gardens to harvest youth and cut the years to make braids out of them. He talks about his own youth, which was not happy, and the woman he was with, who betrayed him. He was often kind, leading with his heart and dreams inside himself.
The old friends may have once thought that they could take the gold from their voices to give you a jewel. They took the time to create a spring and give you a piece of it. But now they have left the past behind and no longer rush to reach love. They no longer remember your name or their own.
The singer is one of them and asks God for madness, which he hid in the back of his bed when night came and condemned the reasons for happiness in the cold of silence. He talks about the talent one must have to tell or live life, depending on whether one has chosen to write or sing. Love and friendship are only temporary.
The old friends pass by him and he no longer recognizes them. They carry their sorrow with them and are bent by the passage of time. They have wrinkles stained by dried tears throughout the years. They eat from social security and no longer know where the Latin Quarter is.
The singer does not belong to them. He returns the passion that was once given to him to believe in lies, in children, while this life consists only of a moment. He will be born tomorrow, when the steam horses electrify all his old friends and rediscover in their withered souls the roses of hell. Together they will sing: "Comrades, let's be electrified!" And if some stars want to see us, they can always borrow a few extra volts. Then they will see us standing upright, with our hands in their seams.
The message of the song is that age and time move forward, but friendship and passion can still be alive if we allow ourselves to be electrified by the power of music and shared memories. It is a reminder that life is short and that we should make the most of every moment to pursue our dreams and passions. The old friends symbolize the past and the experiences we have had, while the singer represents hope and faith in the future.