Lyrics and Music
As for all her songs since "Tristana", Farmer wrote the lyrics. However, the first words of the couplets "bulle de chagrin, boule d'incertitude" were written in the 1970s by Marie, a singer unknown to the general public who died not long before. In this way, Farmer paid tribute to her. According to manager Bertrand Le Page, the song was also inspired by a song entitled "Avant que le monde explose, je veux mourir", which passed unnoticed and which contained in its chorus the words "Ainsi soit-il, ainsi soit-elle".
The song's title refers to the formula which ends Christian prayers ('Amen' i. e. 'Ainsi soit-il' or 'So be it' in English), but here it is spelled 'Ainsi soit je...', instead of 'Ainsi sois-je', showing that the 'Je' (or 'I' in English) is personified. French journalist Benoît Cachin stated that in this song, Farmer "reveals her loneliness, her pain of living and her great lucidity", and deals with the theme of existentialism, which was also present in "À quoi je sers...". This suggests that "the singer's single religion is despair, sadness and great lucidity on the future". She speaks to someone to warn him against her own solitude. The same semantic field is used as in "Regrets": cold, winter, time. According to author Erwan Chuberre, the notes are high, giving thus a "nagging nostalgia" to the song, and the music is like a nocturne by Frédéric Chopin. As in "Rêver" and "Redonne-moi", some lyrics are sung in the high notes to express sadness.
Read more about this topic: Ainsi Soit Je... (song)
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