The Passers by (Les Passantes) Songtext

von Graeme Allwright

The Passers by
(Les Passantes)
(Andrew Kelly)

I sing you a song that I offer
To all the women you love for
A moment — a brief secret time.
To those that your scarcely had met when
A different destiny led them
To places you can't even find.

To her that you saw for an instant
Appear at her window quite distant
Then suddenly vanish away.
Her slim silhouette – a mere outline –
So gracefully faded for all time
But filled you with joy come to stay.

To her on a train – you were travelling –
Whose beautiful eyes left you marveling
And shortened the journey so much.
Perhaps you alone understood her,
You watched her get out: but you could not
Ev(e)n give her soft hand one light touch.

To women already bespoken
Who find that their life's a mere token
With someone that seems not to care.
They once, in a moment of madness
Described the unbearable sadness
When life holds out only despair.

The visions once glimpsed and idealised,
The shortest-lived hopes, never realised,
Remain in our minds just one day.
Whatever brief happiness takes you
The mem(o)ry will quickly forsake you
Of those you once met on your way.

But feeling your life has been wasted
You wish with regret that you'd tasted –
And known – what these joys might have been:
The kisses you dared not discover,
The hearts that await you forever,
Those eyes and their glances – unseen.

When weariness lengthens your evenings
You people your solitude, grieving,
With phantoms your mem(o)ry retains:
You mourn th'absent lips of these countless
Fair passers-by briefly encountered
You didn't know how to detain.