《Beginning French》歌词

[00:00:00] Beginning French - Laurie Anderson

[00:00:04] I've been doing a lot of concerts in French

[00:00:09] Unfortunately I don't speak French

[00:00:13] I memorize it

[00:00:15] I mean my mouth is moving but

[00:00:17] I don't really understand what I'm saying

[00:00:21] It's like sitting at the breakfast table

[00:00:22] And it's early in the morning and you're not quite awake

[00:00:26] And you're just sitting there eating cereal

[00:00:28] And sort of staring at the writing on the box

[00:00:32] And not reading it exactly

[00:00:34] Just more or less looking at the words

[00:00:37] And suddenly for some reason you snap to attention

[00:00:41] And you realize that what

[00:00:42] You're reading is what you're eating

[00:00:45] But by then it's much too late

[00:00:50] After doing these concerts in French

[00:00:53] I usually had the temporary illusion that

[00:00:55] I could actually speak French

[00:00:58] But as soon as I walked out on the street

[00:01:00] And someone asked me simple directions

[00:01:02] I realized I couldn't speak a single word

[00:01:05] So as a result of this inadequacy

[00:01:08] I found that the people

[00:01:10] I had the most rapport with were the babies

[00:01:14] And one of the things I noticed about

[00:01:16] These babies was that they were apparently being used

[00:01:20] As some kind of traffic testers

[00:01:22] Their mothers would be

[00:01:23] Pushing them along in their strollers

[00:01:25] And they would come to a busy

[00:01:26] Street with lots of parked cars

[00:01:28] And the mother can't see what the traffic

[00:01:30] Is like because of all the parked cars

[00:01:32] So she just sort of edges the stroller out

[00:01:35] Into the street and cranes her head out afterwards

[00:01:40] And the most striking thing about this

[00:01:43] Is the expression on these babies' faces

[00:01:48] As they sit there in the middle of traffic stranded

[00:01:52] Banging those little gavels they've all got

[00:01:57] And they can't even speak English

[00:02:00] Do you know what I mean