La solassitude (Meaning: Loneliness and tiredness; Pronunciation sɔlɑsityd) is a hit song by Belgian singer Stromae. The was released on the 2022 album, Multitude.
La solassitude
Song overview
The title of the song, “Solassitude” is a combination of the French words solitude (loneliness) and lassitude (tiredness).
The lyrics of the song La solassitude touch on the theme of dating, living single and one-night stands, compared to the potential boredom that comes with living life as a couple.
Towards the beginning of the song, Stomae presents himself as a man who like one-stands. Then, later in the song he fast-forwards to a time when he expresses his boredom in the relationship suggesting that she find another partner.
La solassitude French lyrics and English translation
Enchanté, moi c’est Nicolas
Vas-y viens on boit un verre
Ou si tu veux on l’fait tout d’suite
Vite, puis j’te ramène après
Bouge pas laisse-toi aller
Pour un soir je serai ton hôte
Qu’est-ce qu’y a, t’hésites ou quoi
Si c’est pas toi ce sera une autre
Les plans cul c’est mon quotidien
Mais difficile de m’confier
C’était pas mal mais on s’ quitte demain
Faudrait quelqu’un pour me conseiller
Nice to meet you, it’s me, Nicolas.
Come on, let’s have a drink
Or if you want we’ll do it right away
Quickly, and I’ll bring you home after.
Don’t move, let yourself go
For one evening I’ll be the host
What’s wrong? Are you hesitant?
If it isn’t you it will be somebody else
Hookups are my everyday life.
But it’s hard to trust me
It wasn’t bad; we’ll part ways tomorrow
Somebody will have to advise me
Le problème, c’est la routine
Quand les jours se ressemblent
C’qui m’ tue c’est l’ennui
Routine is the problem
When the days are alike
What kills me is boredom
Est-ce qu’on finira ensemble
And we’ll end up together
Le célibat me fait souffrir de solitude
La vie de couple me fait souffrir de lassitude
Le célibat me fait souffrir de solitude
La vie de couple me fait souffrir de lassitude
Single life makes me suffer from loneliness
Life as a couple makes me suffer from tiredness
Single life makes me suffer from loneliness
Life as a couple makes me suffer from tiredness
Mon amour, ça fait huit ans
C’est pas tous les jours évident
C’est pas par manque de sentiment
On s’aime toujours mais autrement
On dort dans le même lit
Mais on s’éloigne petit à p’tit
L’impression d’être devenu transparent
Et si tu t’ trouvais un amant
Un resto, un week-end
Pffffff, c’est trop fatigant
Si on reste ici tout l’week-end
My darling, it’s been eight years
It’s not clear every day
It’s not because of the lack of feeling
We still love each other but in an another way
We sleep in the same bed
But we’re gradually moving away from each other
The impact having become clear
And what if you found a lover
A restaurant, a weekend
Pfff, it’s too tiring
If we stay here the entire weekend
Est-ce que tu m’ trouveras encore attirant
Will you still find me to be attractive
Le problème c’est la routine
Quand les jours se ressemblent
C’qui m’ tue c’est l’ennui
Est-ce qu’on finira ensemble
Routine is the problem
When the days are alike
What kills me is boredom
Will be end up together
Le célibat me fait souffrir de solitude
La vie de couple me fait souffrir de lassitude
Le célibat me fait souffrir de solitude
La vie de couple me fait souffrir de lassitude
Single life makes me suffer from loneliness
Life as a couple makes me suffer from tiredness
Single life makes me suffer from loneliness
Life as a couple makes me suffer from tiredness
Le célibat me fait souffrir de solitude
La vie de couple me fait souffrir de lassitude (de lassitude)
Le célibat me fait souffrir de solitude (de solitude)
La vie de couple me fait souffrir de lassitude
Single life makes me suffer from loneliness
Life as a couple makes me suffer from tiredness
Single life makes me suffer from loneliness
Life as a couple makes me suffer from tiredness
Lyrics analysis
In the following section we’ll take a look some lines from the song’s lyrics which we think offer interesting insights into learning French vocabulary, verbs and grammar.
Enchanté, moi c’est Nicolas
This line translates to “Nice to meet you, it’s me, Nicolas”. Echanté is one of several ways of saying nice to meet you in French. C’est moi means “it’s me”. Moi is a stressed pronoun meaning “me” in French.
Vas-y viens on boit un verre
This line translates to “Come on, let’s have a drink”. Vas-y means “go ahead” and combines the second-person singular (tu) form of aller (to go) with the y, and indirect object pronoun meaning “there”. Viens is the second-person form of venir (to come).
Ou si tu veux on l’fait tout d’suite
This line translates to “Or if you want we’ll do it right away”. This line uses the personal pronoun on, which translates literally to “one” and also means “we”. Veux is the second-person singular form of vouloir (to want).
Bouge pas laisse-toi aller
This line translates to “Don’t move, let yourself go”. Bouge pas is a shorting of ne bouge pas, meaning “don’t move”. Ne…pas is the standard French negation structure. The expression se laisser aller means to let yourself go.
Pour un soir je serai ton hôte
This line translates to “For one evening I’ll be the host”. Serai is the first-person singular (je) form of être (to be) in the futur simple, a commonly used French future tense.
Qu’est-ce qu’y a, t’hésites ou quoi
This line translates to “What’s wrong? Are you hesitant?”. Qu’est-ce que means what in French and il y a means “there is”. Combined, “Qu’est-ce qu’il y a?” means “what’s wrong?” or “what’s the matter?”.
Quoi also means what in French and has many usages. The expression ou quoi literally means “or what” but doesn’t translate well in the context of line.
Si c’est pas toi ce sera une autre
This line translates to “If it isn’t you it will be somebody else”. Toi is also a stressed pronoun and means you in French.
Les plans cul c’est mon quotidien
This line translates to “Hookups are my everyday life.” The word cul is slang for buttocks and a plan cul refers to a casual hookup.
As an adjective, quotidien means daily. However, as a noun, quotidien means everyday life or daily routine.
Mais difficile de m’confier
This line translates to “But it’s hard to trust me”. In correct French, it should be “il est difficile de me confier”. The construction, “il est + adjective + de + infinitive” means “It is + adjective + to + verb”.
C’était pas mal mais on s’ quitte demain
This line translates to “It wasn’t bad; we’ll part ways tomorrow”. Était is être (to be) in the imperfect tense (l’imparfait), a commonly used French past tense used for describing past situations.
Quitter means to leave. As a reflexive verb, se quitter means to leave each other.
Faudrait quelqu’un pour me conseiller
This line translates to “Somebody will have to advise me”. Faudrait is the conditional form of il faut, an impersonal expression which means “it’s necessary to” or “you/one has to”.
Le problème, c’est la routine
This line translates to “Routine is the problem”. C’est in French means “it is”.
Quand les jours se ressemblent, C’qui m’ tue c’est l’ennui
These two lines translate to “When the days are alike, What kills me is boredom”. The word quand means when in French. Ce que is an indefinite relative pronoun, meaning “what”.
Est-ce qu’on finira ensemble
This line translates to “And we’ll end up together?”. Finir is a regular ir verb meaning to finish. In the context of this line, finir means to end up or to wind up.
Le célibat me fait souffrir de solitude
This line translates to “Single life makes me suffer from loneliness”. Célibat translates to single status or single life.
The verb faire means both to make and to do. Me fait translates to “makes me”, with the me in French translating to to me, at me or simply “me”.
La vie de couple me fait souffrir de lassitude
This line translates to “Life as a couple makes me suffer from tiredness”. Vie means life in French and vie de couple means either life as a couple or married life. Translations of lassitude include weariness, tiredness and lassitude.
Mon amour, ça fait huit ans
This line translates to “My darling, it’s been eight years”. Mon Amour means my love or my darling. The expression ça fait + time period translates to “it’s been”. This expression is also related to depuis, which means “since”.
C’est pas tous les jours évident
This line translates to “It’s not clear every day”. Évident has several meanings including evident, obvious and clear.
C’est pas par manque de sentiment
This line translates to “It’s not because of the lack of feeling”. Par has several meanings and usages and translates literally to “by”.
The noun manque means lack and the verb manquer means both to lack and to miss.
On s’aime toujours mais autrement
This line translates to “We still love each other but in an another way”. On s’aime is a reciprocal pronominal form of aimer (to love). Toujours has two common meanings: always and still.
On dort dans le même lit
This line translates to “We sleep in the same bed”. The preposition dans means in or inside of. The word même has multiple usages including “self” and “same”.
Mais on s’éloigne petit à p’tit
This line translates to “But we’re gradually moving away from each other”. Éloigner means to move away. With the pronoun “on” and the reflexive pronoun “se”, on s’éloigne we move away from each other.
The adjective petit means little or small and the expression petit à petit means gradually, little by little or a bit at a time.
L’impression d’être devenu transparent
This line translates to “The impact having become clear”. This line is an example of the infinitif passé tense, which is used to describe actions that have already occurred.
Et si tu t’ trouvais un amant
This line translates to “And what if you found a lover”. The construction si + imperfect is used express “what about” or “how about?”.
Un resto, un week-end
This line translates to “A restaurant, a weekend”. In spoken French, resto is a shortening of restaurant.
Est-ce que tu m’ trouveras encore attirant
This line translates to “Will you still find me to be attractive?”. In French, est-ce que is used for yes-no questions, meaning is, are, do and does. The verb attirer means to attract and the adjective attirant means attractive.