Morts Les Enfants Lyrics in English Renaud

Below, I translated the lyrics of the song Morts Les Enfants by Renaud from French to English.
Gas-soaked rag
A child dies in silence
On the sidewalk in Bogota
Nobody stops
Shredded in minefields
Decimated on the front lines
Dead, the children of war
For their fathers' ideas
Ball at the embassy
Some sick old men
Idiots and bed-ridden
Carve up the world
Dead, the children of Bhopal
From Western industry
Gone into the waters of the Ganges
The lawyers cut deals
Dead, the children of hate
Near us or farther away
Dead, the children of fear
Buckshot in the heart
Ball at the embassy
Some sick old men
Idiots and soldiers
Carve up the world
Dead, the children of the Sahel
They blame the sun
Dead, the children of Seveso
Dead, the trees, the birds
Dead, the children of the road
Last weekend of August
Daddy was probably boozing
Two or three drinks
A few drops
Ball at the embassy
Some sick old men
Idiots and torturers
Carve up the world
Dead, the child who lived in me
Who saw in that world
A garden, a river
And men pretty much brothers
The garden is a jungle
Men have gone crazy
The river carries tears
One day the child grabs a gun
Bullets at the embassy
Attack, grenade
Slaughter at the ministry
Under the rubble, the bed-ridden
Lyrics and Translations Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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SONG MEANING

Fasten your seatbelt: in Morts Les Enfants French songwriter Renaud paints a raw, cinematic tour of childhoods cut short in every corner of the planet — from the streets of Bogotá and the minefields of war zones to chemical disasters like Seveso and Bhopal. Each verse names a new tragedy, then points an accusing finger at the "bal à l'ambassade," a sarcastic image of powerful, out-of-touch leaders who sip cocktails while the youngest and most innocent pay the ultimate price.

Yet the song is not only a catalog of horrors; it is also a coming-of-age nightmare. Renaud shows how the "child within" dies when hope is replaced by rage, until even the dreamer picks up a gun. By the final lines, the roles flip: the children once sacrificed are now the ones attacking the very embassies where the adults planned their fate. Morts Les Enfants is both protest anthem and cautionary tale, urging us to protect childhood or face a future where anger is the only language left.

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