“Tourner dans le vide“ (Meaning: Spinning In Emptiness”; pronunciation tuʀne dɑ̃ lə vid) is a hit song by French singer Indila. The song was released in 2014 on the album Mini World and became an instant success in Europe. This post will examine the song’s French lyrics and English translation in detail.
Tourner dans le vide lyrics
Song overview
In a nutshell, the song “Tourner dans le vide” is about the Indila being in love with a man who’s a manual worker (Il tallait la pierre, fils d’ouvrier; He cut stone, the son of a worker).
She feels the man is being judged (Ne le jugez pas; Don’t judge him) by people with twisted values (Vous troquez vos valeurs; You swap your values).
She then states that after his departure she’ll always have a tear stuck in her eye for him (Une larme du passé, Coincée dans mes yeux; A tear from the past, stuck in my eyes).
In the music video, Indila enters what appears to be a high-class party where she’s looked down upon by the people there.
She sees her imaginary lover in a painting. After dancing with the imaginary lover, he then disappears from the painting.
Listen to Tourner dans le vide
The official video of Tourner Dans Le Vide has over 395 million views on YouTube.
Tourner Dans Le Vide French Lyrics & English Translation
Il était brun, le teint basané
Le regard timide, les mains toutes abîmées
Il taillait la pierre, fils d’ouvier
Il en était fier, mais pourquoi vous riez?
Non, ne le jugez pas
Vous qui ne connaissez pas
Les vertiges et le labeur
Vous êtes faussement heureux, vous troquez vos valeurs
Lui, il est tout mon monde, et bien plus que ça
Seule je crie son nom quand vient le désarroi
Et puis tout s’effondre quand il n’est plus là
J’aimerais tellement lui dire mais je n’ose pas
He was brown-haired and dark-skinned
With a timid look and damaged hands
He cut stone, the son of a worker
He was proud, why are you laughing?
No, don’t judge him
You who don’t know
The heights and the labor
You are falsely happy, you swap your values
He is my entire world, and even more than that
I scream his name alone when the confusion comes
And everything crumbles when he’s not here any more
I would like to tell him so much but I don’t dare
Lui qui me fait
Tourner dans le vide, vide
Tourner dans le vide, vide
Tourner dans le vide, il me fait tourner
Dans le vide, vide, vide
Tourner, tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide, il me fait tourner
Tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
He makes me
Spin in emptiness, emptiness
Spin in emptiness, emptiness
Spin in emptiness, he makes me spin
In emptiness, emptiness, emptiness
Spin, spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness, he makes me spin
In emptiness
In emptiness
In emptiness
In emptiness
In emptiness
In emptiness
In emptiness
Qui peut bien me dire ce qui est arrivé?
Depuis qu’il est parti, je n’ai pu me relever
Ce n’est plus qu’un souvenir, une larme du passé
Coincée dans mes yeux qui ne veut plus s’en aller
Oh non, ne riez pas
Vous qui ne connaissez pas
Les vertiges et la douleur
Ils sont superficiels, ils ignorent tout du cœur
Lui, c’était tout mon monde et bien plus que ça
J’espère le revoir là, pas dans l’au-delà
Aidez-moi tout s’effondre puisqu’il n’est plus là
Sais-tu mon bel amour, mon beau soldat
Who can tell me what happened?
Since he’s been gone, I haven’t been able to get back on my feet
It’s just a memory, a tear from the past
Stuck in my eyes that doesn’t want to leave
Oh no, don’t laugh
You who don’t know
The heights and the pain
They’re superficial, they know nothing about the heart
He was my entire world and even more than that
I hope to see him again here, not in heaven
Help me, everything crumbles since he’s no longer here
Do you know, my love, my beautiful soldier
Que tu me fais
Tourner dans le vide, vide
Tourner dans le vide, vide
Tourner dans le vide, tu me fais tourner
Dans le vide, vide, vide
Tourner, tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide, il me fait tourner
Tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
That you make me
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness, you make me spin
In emptiness, emptiness, emptiness
Spin in emptiness, he makes me spin
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Il me fait tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
Il me fait tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide
Il me fait tourner
Tourner dans le vide
He makes me spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
He makes me spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
Spin in emptiness
He makes me spin
Spin in emptiness
Line-by-line lyrics analysis
In the following section we’ve selected lines which we feel offer interesting insights into French vocabulary and grammar.
Il était brun, le teint basané
This line translates to “He was brown-haired and dark-skinned”. “Il etait” means both “he was” and “he used to be”. This is être (to be) conjugated in the imperfect tense.
The adjective brun/brune means brunette or brown-haired. The noun teint means complexion and comes from the verb teindre (to dye). Basané is an adjective meaning dark-skinned, swarthy or tanned.
Le regard timide, les mains toutes abîmées
This line translates to “With a timid look and damaged hands”. “Regard” as a noun can translate to “look” or “appearance”. The adjective abîmé means damaged, ruined or spoiled.
Il taillait la pierre, fils d’ouvier
This line translate to “He cut stone, the son of a worker”. The verb “tailler“ means to trim, cut, carve or sculpt. “Pierre“ means stone or rock. The spelling is the same as the first name, Pierre. The noun “ouvrier“ translates to worker, laborer or manual worker.
Il en était fier, mais pourquoi vous riez?
This line translate to “He was proud, why are you laughing?”. The “en“ is an indirect object pronoun, referring back to his work. The adjective “fier“ means proud, in the positive sense. The -r is pronounced in both the masculine and feminine (fière) forms.
Non, ne le jugez pas
This line translates to “No, don’t judge him”. The “le” is a direct object pronoun meaning “him”. “Le” is also the word for “the” in the masculine form. This is called direct article.
Vous qui ne connaissez pas
This line translates to “You who don’t know”. There are two verbs for “to know” in French: Connaître and savoir. The former is used for people and the later is used for facts.
Les vertiges et le labeur
This line translate to “The heights and the labor”. “Vertige“ in French translates to “vertigo” and “fear of heights”. Thus, we simply translated it to “heights” in our lyrics translation. “Labeur“ is related to the English word “labor” and means labor, toil or hard work.
Vous êtes faussement heureux, vous troquez vos valeurs
This line translate to “You are falsely happy, you swap your values”. The adjective faux/fausse means false or fake. The related adverb faussement translate to falsely, wrongly, wrongfully. The verb troquer means to swap, exchange or switch.
Lui, il est tout mon monde, et bien plus que ça
This line translate to “He is my entire world, and even more than that”. The word “lui” is a stressed pronoun translates to him. In this line, it precedes the subject pronoun “il” (he) to add some emphasis to the subject.
Seule je crie son nom quand vient le désarroi
This line translates to “I scream his name alone when the confusion comes”. The verb “crier“ means “to scream”. It looks like the English word “cry”. However, “pleurer” means “to cry” in French. The French noun “désarroi“ translate to disarray, confusion and consternation.
Et puis tout s’effondre quand il n’est plus là
This line translate to “And everything crumbles when he’s not here any more”. The verb “s’effondrer“ has many translations including to fall, collapse and break apart. The word “plus” is a special negation form used to indicated “anymore”. The word “là” can cause a bit of confusion as it means both “here” and “there”. “Ici” also means here”.
J’aimerais tellement lui dire mais je n’ose pas
This line translates to “I would like to tell him so much but I don’t dare”. “J’aimerais” translates to “I would like to”. This is the conditional (would tense) form of “aimer“ (to like). The verb “oser“ means “to dare”.
Lui qui me fait
We translated this line to “He makes me”. “Lui” is a stressed pronoun meaning “him”. Another loose translation of this line could be “He’s the one who makes me”.
Qui peut bien me dire ce qui est arrivé?
This line translates to “Who can tell me what happened?”. “Ce qui” is an indefinite relative pronoun, meaning “what”. In addition to “to arrive”, the French verb “arriver“ also means “to happen” or “to occur”.
Depuis qu’il est parti, je n’ai pu me relever
This line translates to “Since he’s been gone, I haven’t been able to get back on my feet”. The verb “partir” (to leave) uses “être” as an auxiliary very in the passé composé. The reflexive verb “se relever” means to get back on your feet.
Ce n’est plus qu’un souvenir, une larme du passé
This line translate to “It’s just a memory, a tear from the past”. The phrase “ce n’est plus que” translates literally to “It is only anymore”. The negation “ne + verb + plus” means “anymore” and “ne + verb + que” means “only”.
Coincée dans mes yeux qui ne veut plus s’en aller
This line translates to “Stuck in my eyes that doesn’t want to leave”. The adjective “coincé” translates to stuck, jammed or uptight. The reflexive verb “s’en aller“ means “to leave”.
Ils sont superficiels, ils ignorent tout du cœur
This line translates to “They’re superficial, they know nothing about the heart”. The French verb “ignorer” means both “to know nothing” and “to ignore”.
J’espère le revoir là, pas dans l’au-delà
We translated this line to “I hope to see him again here, not in heaven”. “Au-delà“ translate to “beyond” or “on the other side”. “L’au-delà” translates to “the afterlife” or heaven.
Sais-tu mon bel amour, mon beau soldat
This line translates to “Do you know, my love, my beautiful soldier”. The word “bel” really means “beau“ (beautiful). It’s written as “bel” to form a special liaison (the linking of two words).
Become an expert in French song lyrics!
Listening to French songs and studying the lyrics is one of the most fun ways to improve! For the leading French female singer Indila, we have a detailed post analyzing the lyrics of “Dernière Danse“, “Parler à ta tête“, “S.O.S.“ and Love Story.
The Belgian singer Stormae also has some amazing songs. On our site we’ve analyzed the lyrics of “Alors On Danse“, “Papaoutai” and “Formidable“.
For some classic French songs, we have pages covering the lyrics of “La Vie En Rose” (Edith Paif), “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” (Edith Piaf), “Ne Me Quitte Pas” (Jacques Brel) and “Je T’aime Moi Non Plus” (Serge Gainsbourg).
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French songs | Lessons by David Issokson
