One little man (Le petit homme)

Life in the street is the same every day
Life in the street is a marvelous play
Ladies and lovers, and bankers and bums
Hurry along while the big city hums

People are frowning while others are gay
Music is tumbling from every café
There's all of the wonder of life and love
Out in the street with the blue sky above

There in the crowd one little man
Hurries along upon his way
Nobody much, and turning gray
Just one little man
But he has a girl
He's still a man

He has a young and lovely girl
Maybe she does demand too much
But who wouldn't pay to feel her touch?
Who wouldn't pay? Especially a man who's turning gray

He has no children, no home and no wife
He lives a kind of the Saturday life
Saturday evening he runs up the stairs
Launches his face in her deep golden hair

Why should he care if he pays for her charms
He can recapture his youth in her arms
And Saturday night he can live once more
Saturday night, he can live just once more

Then one awful day he climbs the stairs
Picks up a note beneath her door
What should he tear it open for?
He knows what he'll find
Poor little man, he's left behind

She's gone away and he's alone
She never even said goodbye
Where does a fellow go to cry
Where does he cry?
Out in the street, beneath the sky

Life in the street is the same every day
Life in the street is a marvelous play
Ladies and lovers, and bankers and bums
Hurry along while the big city hums

People are frowning while others are gay
Music is tumbling from every café
And there with the beautiful sky above
One little man cries alone for his love