Dans le Restaurant

Song Meaning

The scene opens in a restaurant with a detached, almost clinical observation of a waiter. He's described as "délabré" (shabby) and preoccupied with idle gestures, a stark contrast to the narrator's internal world. The waiter's subsequent pronouncements about weather in his homeland, a bizarre mix of "pluvieux, Du vent, du grand soleil, et de la pluie," are framed as "le jour de lessive des gueux" (the beggars' laundry day), suggesting a harsh, unpredictable existence. The narrator's plea, "ne bave pas dans la soupe" (don't drool in the soup), is a visceral reaction to this perceived slovenliness and perhaps a deeper disgust with the waiter's presence. This initial discomfort quickly shifts to a fragmented, almost dreamlike memory of a childhood encounter. The narrator recalls sheltering from a shower with a younger girl, an event that seems to have held a strange power for him, marked by "puissance et de délire" (power and delirium) as he tickled her. This recollection is abruptly interrupted by a harsh, accusatory voice, labeling the narrator "vieux lubrique" (old lecher). The memory is reframed, tainted by an adult's retrospective judgment, transforming a moment of perceived innocence into something sordid. The lyrics then pivot to a stark, almost transactional exchange. The "fait est dur" (the fact is hard), and the narrator is accused of unwanted advances, likened to a dog "nous peloter" (sniffing us). Fear is expressed, and the encounter is abandoned "a mi-chemin" (halfway). The subsequent lines are a bitter, dismissive retort: "Va t'en te décrotter les rides du visage" (Go wipe the wrinkles from your face), offering a paltry sum for basic hygiene, "dix sous, pour la salle-de-bains" (ten sous for the bathroom). This exchange highlights a profound disconnect and a sense of degradation. Finally, the poem concludes with a seemingly unrelated elegy for "Phlebas, le Phénicien, pendant quinze jours noyé" (Phlebas the Phoenician, drowned for a fortnight). This drowned man, once a man of stature, now forgets worldly concerns like profits and losses. The shift to this drowned figure, detached from earthly matters, might suggest a yearning for oblivion or a final, stark contrast to the messy, fraught human interactions described earlier. The poem leaves the reader with a sense of fragmented experience, where memory, judgment, and a detached observation of decay collide.