sort form Submissions:
submissions
Kate Bush – Ne T'enfuis Pas Lyrics 16 years ago
I cannot say if my own translation is much better, but there are some mistakes I could not help to notice. French is my mother language, English is not, so Ambriel your work helped me a lot, yet I am still not quite sure everything makes sense...

I come
Like a cat
By the black night ("by such a black night", if it can be said this way)
You await
And I fall
Into your white wings, la la la
And I Fly
And I drown
Like a feather (please do not ask me to explain the drowning feather)

If the Good Lord's big eyes ("Si les grands yeux du Bon dieu")
Were not looking (at me) ("Ne (me) regardaient pas")
I would steal you

Don't fly away
You got wings
You're able to leave me
You've fallen
From the sky, like an angel, la la la
And I'm afraid
That the sky
Could take you back

I come
Like a cat
By the black night

I'm begging you
I'm begging you
I'm begging you
I'm begging you
I'm begging you
I'm begging you
Don't fly away


Consequently I think this is more about a woman who is so much fond of her lover that she cannot believe he is even human, he should have some connection with God, probably he is an angel. She cannot even believe she deserves him, and would be less surprised if he left her someday. The kind of doubt everyone who is, or was deeply in love should have felt. These are not the deepest lyrics Kate wrote, but still deeper than tons of french love songs I know, and amazingly performed by the way.

It reminds me also some words from The Man with the Child in his eyes : "Maybe he doesn't love me / I just took a trip on my love for him". It sounds to me as the same idea.

I thought about a less metaphorical meaning too, refering to Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin, by Wim Wenders. There is a remake from 1998 called City of Angels, with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan, but I'd better not to talk about it).
The story is about a male angel, sent on Earth like many others, as a witness who has no right to feel or experience anything by himself, and of course to unveil his existence. Until he finds a woman for whom he decides to lose his wings - to become a part of the mankind. Ne t'enfuis pas could have been sung by the heroin.

Then I checked the dates. The movie was made in Berlin in 1987 (the wall, about to fall, is almost a character. The city is indeed). The song was released in 1982... Let's forget it then...

* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.