Sunday Music: Marianne Faithfull

*embedding disabled. See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OWNs_VcRu0

The song is Serge Gainsbourg's "Hier ou Demain," sung by Marianne Faithfull in the musical Anna, made for French TV in 1967. A talented singer-songwriter and with a fresh, natural-looking beauty, Faithfull was unfortunately also a drug addict, especially of cocaine. In 1979, after a harrowing decline that included losing custody of her son and living on the street, she released the acclaimed solo album Broken English. Her once silvery voice had been ravaged and lowered by years of drug abuse, and seemed to belong to a different person.

The last verse and chorus translated (to the best of my abilities):

Hier est si loin déjà
Et je ne t'aimais pas.
Et dès demain si tu penses à moi
Je ne serai plus là.

Hier ou demain,
Je t'aurais dit oui.
Hier ou demain,
Mais pas aujourd'hui.


Yesterday is already long gone
And I didn't love you.
And tomorrow, if you think of me
I won't be there any more.

Yesterday or tomorrow,
I would have said yes to you.
Yesterday or tomorrow,
But not today.