“Hymne à l’amour“ (meaning: hymn to love) is a French song originally written and sung by Édith Piaf in 1950. In July, 2024 Céline Dion performed the song from the Eiffel tower at the opening ceramony of the Paris Olympics. In this post, I’ve read all each line of the song aloud and explained all of the vocabulary and grammar.
Celine Dion performing Hymne à l’amour
The following video is of Céline Dion singing Hymne à l’amour. Click on any of the lyrics below, repeat and sing along with Céline!
Hymne à l’amour lyrics
Le ciel bleu sur nous peut s’effondrer
Et la Terre peut bien s’écrouler
Peu m’importe si tu m’aimes
Je me fous du monde entier
The blue sky above us can collapse
And the earth could just as well cave in
Because you love me
I don’t care about the entire world
Tant qu’l’amour innondera mes matins
Tant qu’mon corps frémira sous tes mains
Peu m’importe les problèmes
Mon amour, puisque tu m’aimes
As long as love floods my mornings
As long as my body trembles under your hands
Regardless of the problems
My love, since you love me
J’irais jusqu’au bout du monde
Je me ferais teindre en blonde
Si tu me le demandais
J’irais décrocher la Lune
J’irais voler la fortune
Si tu me le demandais
Je renierais ma patrie
Je renierais mes amis
Si tu me le demandais
On peut bien rire de moi
Je ferais n’importe quoi
Si tu me le demandais
I would go ot the end of the world
I would have my hair dyed blond
If you asked me to
I would do the impossible
I would steal the fortune
If you asked me to
I would disown my country
I would disown my friends
If you asked me to
We can just as well laugh about myself
I would do anything
If you asked me to
Si un jour, la vie t’arrache à moi
Si tu meurs, que tu sois loin de moi
Peu m’importe si tu m’aimes
Car moi je mourrais aussi
If one day, life pulls you away from me
If you die, that you are far from me
Because you love me
For I would die too
Nous aurons pour nous l’éternité
Dans le bleu de toute l’immensité
Dans le ciel, plus de problème
Mon amour, crois-tu qu’on s’aime?
Dieu réunit ceux qui s’aiment
We will have eternity for us
In the blue of all vastness
In the sky, no more problems
My love, do you believe we love each other?
God reunites thouse who love each other
Vocabulary and grammar of the French lyrics
In this section I explain the vocabulary and grammar in the song’s lyrics. Wherever applicable, I’ve provided links to further resources.
Hymne à l’amour
The title of the song, Hymne à l’amour, translates to “Hymn to Love”. Hymne (masculine noun) in French translates to both hymn and anthem.
Le ciel bleu sur nous peut s’effondrer
This line translates to “The blue sky above us can collapse”. The ciel blue could also be a metaphor for “the heavens”. The preposition sur translates literally to “on”. S’effondrer is a reflexive verb meaning “to collapse”.
Et la Terre peut bien s’écrouler
This line translates to “And the earth could just as well cave in”. The adverb bien translates literally to “well”. Both s’écrouler and s’effondrer are synonyms for to collapse, crumble or fall apart.
Peu m’importe si tu m’aimes
I translated this line loosely to “Because you love me”. Translations for the expression peu importe include “no matter” and “regardless”. Translations for aimer are “to like” and “to love”.
Je me fous du monde entier
This line translates to “I don’t care about the entire world”. Je me fous is very strong langauge for “I don’t care”. Foutre is a versatile slang verb used in many expressions.
Tant qu’l’amour innondera mes matins
This line translates to “As long as love floods my mornings”. The conjunction tant que can translate to both “as long as” and “while”. Innonder means “to flood”. In this line it’s conjugated in the futur simple tense.
Tant qu’mon corps frémira sous tes mains
This line translates to “As long as my body trembles under your hands”. Frémir means to tremble, quake or shake.
Mon amour, puisque tu m’aimes
This line translates to “My love, since you love me”. The conjunction puisque means “since”.
J’irais jusqu’au bout du monde
This line translates to “I would go ot the end of the world”. J’irais (I would go) is the verb aller (to go) conjugated in the conditional tense. The preposition jusqu’à means “until”.
Je me ferais teindre en blonde
This line translates to “I would have my hair dyed blond”. This is an example of faire + infinitive, which means “to have something done”.
Si tu me le demandais
I took the liberty to translate this line to “If you asked me to”. The literal translation is: “If you asked me it”. In this sentece, demander (to ask) is conjugated in the imperfect tense. The le in this sentence is a direct object pronoun meaning “it”.
J’irais décrocher la Lune
For this line, the expression décrocher la lune literally means “to unhook the mood” and means “to do the impossible”.
J’irais voler la fortune
This line translates to “I would steal the fortune”. The verb voler means both to steal and to fly.
Je renierais ma patrie, Je renierais mes amis
These two lines translate to “I would disown my country / I would disown my friends”. Renier means to disown, deny or renounce. Patrie (feminine noun) means country or homeland and is used in the first line of the Marseillaise (national anthem of France).
On peut bien rire de moi
This line translates to “We can just as well laugh about myself”. The pronoun on has several uses including “we”. Rire means to laugh and se rire de is somewhat of a synonym with se moquer (to make fun of).
Je ferais n’importe quoi
This line translates to “I would do anything”. Je ferais is the verb faire conjugated in the conditional. The expression n’importe quoi has several meanings including “anything”. When used in another context, it means “nonsense”.
Si un jour, la vie t’arrache à moi
This line translates to “If one day, life pulls you away from me”. La vie means “life” in French as the expresion c’est la vie (that’s life). Arracher has multiple translations including “to pull out” or “tear out”.
Si tu meurs, que tu sois loin de moi
This line translates to “If you die, that you are far from me”. Sois is the verb être (to be) conjugated in the subjunctive mood.
Car moi je mourrais aussi
This line translates to “For I would die too”. Car in French means both “because” and “for”.
Nous aurons pour nous l’éternité
This line translates to “We will have eternity for us”. Aurons is the verb avoir (to have) conjugated in the futur simple tense.
Dans le bleu de toute l’immensité
This line translates to “In the blue of all vastness”. Immensité (feminine noun) has multiple translations including vastness, hugeness and enormity.
Dans le ciel, plus de problème
This line translates to “In the sky, no more problems”. Plus has many usages but in this context it means “no more”.
Mon amour, crois-tu qu’on s’aime?
This line translates to “My love, do you believe we love each other?”. Crois-tu means “do you believe (or think)?” and uses the inversion form of asking questions.
Dieu réunit ceux qui s’aiment
This final line of the song translates to “God reunites thouse who love each other”. Ceux is a demonstrative pronoun meaning “those”.
More French song lyrics posts:
- Top 12 Edith Piaf songs
- Top 10 Celine Dion French songs
- Mon truc en plumes (Sung by Lady Gaga at the Olympics)
- Pour que tu m’aimes encore (Celine Dion)
- La vie en rose (Edith Piaf)
- Non, je ne regrette rien (Edith Piaf)
- Mon Dieu (Edith Piaf)
- Milord (Edith Piaf)
- Sous le ciel de Paris (Edith Piaf)
- Padam, Padam (Édith Piaf)
- Les Champs Élysées (Joe Dassin)
- Ne me quitte pas (Jacques Brel)
French songs | Lessons by David Issokson
