I Drink Charles Aznavour

I drink to drive away all the years I have hated
The ambitions frustrated that no longer survive
I drink day after day to the chaos behind me
Yes, I drink to remind me that still I'm alive

So I give you a toast to the endless confusions
To the lies and delusions that have swallowed my life
Yes, I give you a toast to the wine and the roses
To the deadly cirrhosis that can cut like a knife

I drink to catch a gleam of the love we degraded
Of a life that has faded like the vanishing moon
I drink, as in a dream, to my waning desire
To the passionate fire that has burned out so soon

I drink and I drown in the promise you made me
All the times you betrayed me in your anger and spite
When you took on the town, when you looked for the action
When you took satisfaction, like a whore in the night

I drink to make-believe that my life is worth living
That the gods are forgiving at the end of the day
I drink because I grieve for the dreams when we started
For the innocent-hearted who got lost on the way

For the children unborn, for their dead, phantom faces
For our sterile embraces in the tomb of your bed
I drink, and I mourn for the harvest that failed
For the ship that has sailed, for the hope that is dead