Encore Un Soir

Céline Dion’s Heartbreaking Outcry

 I was driving home one evening when a voice on the radio caught my attention. I increased the volume. It was Celine Dion

I had never been a Céline fan, not for any good or bad reason, it’s just that I’m usually tuned to old hits of yesteryears, my favourites, and I don’t listen to much else. But that song… Once I started listening, I just couldn’t stop! Something just happened. I felt a great rush of emotion come through me and my mind wandered away from the monotony of the awful traffic. That voice, now whispering, now soaring, was so intense that I found myself pulling the car over to the side of the congested road so I could concentrate on the song and the sensation it created in me.

Time Stops for No One

The song was like a personal supplication – an urgent appeal – delivered in a crystal-clear and powerful way. I soon found myself joining in that pleading which entreated Time to stop for just one more night, one more hour, one more tear of bliss.

Today, months after the release of the French-language album, Céline Dion’s poignant rendering of Jean-Jacques Goldman’s stirring lyrics and music, continues to send chills up the spine in a most uplifting way.

Here is an excerpt of the song “Encore Un Soir” (One More Night) which I’ve attempted to translate to English for our readers who may still want to listen to it once again and have their mind race with questions about life to which they will find no answers:

A picture, a date,

It's hard to believe it

But it was only yesterday, my memory would lie to me

And those children faces, and mine in that mirror

Oh, it's not that I’m complaining

From that, you’ve nothing to fear

Life has indulged me so much

I find it rather hard to stifle it

Oh God, I did get my share

And so much more in so many ways

But when one lives too exquisitely too strongly

One forgets the Time that goes by

Just as we lose a little of our bearings

When in the midst of too large an expanse

Hardly have we time to get used to it

Than we have to move and vacate the scene

Oh, if I could…

One more night!

One more hour!

One more tear of happiness!

A favor, like a flower

A breath, an error

A little bit of us,

A bit of almost nothing

To sum it all up again

Or to keep quiet with eyes speaking

Just a postponement

Only just,

I know, it’s late!

I’ve never asked for anything

This, is not asking the impossible!

Come on! In the face of Eternity

This will not even be noticed!

It will remain just between you and me

Oh, just a slight postponement!

It's not very much,

Simply a suspension

Let Time and timepiece rest

And caress just a kiss,

One kiss!

One more night!

One more hour!

A little bit of us,

A little bit of everything!

A night!