Larry M. Coleman

In honor of Alizée’s 40th birthday today, let’s look at one of my favorite lyrics of hers.

J’ai mis dans mon sac toutes mes promesses
Et dans mon cœur toutes mes passions
Quelques pansements pour mes maladresses
Un iPod de contrefaçon

J’ai mis dans mon sac tous les sourires
Qu’il m’était donné de croiser
J’y ai mis tes soupirs
Quand je t’ai dit que je partais

—Alizée, Dans mon sac

And my translation from the French:

I put in my bag all my promises
And in my heart all my passions
Some bandages for my awkwardness
A counterfeit iPod

I put in my bag all the smiles
He used to give to me as we passed
I put his sighs there
When I told him I was leaving

Listen to the song (it’s only 2m 39s):

Ahh, lists. They’re useful sometimes, but what makes this one particularly beautiful is how by the end of the fourth line, in only 24 words, we already have an image of the woman in the song. We see so much of her personality, then finish up with a marvelous detail that says so much about her external life, her values, and her situation.

Think of how many ways you can interpret a counterfeit iPod. Consider what that says about what’s important to her. It’s a cheap knockoff, which to me means she doesn’t have much money, meaning little security in her life, and she’s going to leave anyway and have even less. That little detail, that one word “counterfeit,” adds so much to the mental image. If it were just an iPod, it would add little to nothing.

May all your words carry such meaning.

Next week: Julia Alvarez on how stories change but stay the same.

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