La vie ne m'apprend rien

The speaker questions who has the right to teach people how to feel, define goodness, or decide how they should live. He distrusts moral authorities and laws that seem to serve a few powerful people rather than everyone. Although he wants to speak, make a choice, and move forward, he repeatedly admits that he cannot decide how. The song therefore moves between protest and frustration, ending not with a solution but with a sense of being stuck.

Choosing a train or taking a path are images of making a choice and beginning a new direction; the speaker longs for that movement but cannot manage it. Being “planted” in one place suggests paralysis, as if uncertainty has stopped him from acting. The contrast between laws and the people who make them implies that rules alone do not create justice: a small group can shape rules for its own benefit. The references to weapons and medals also challenge the idea that noble beliefs or honors can undo the human cost of violence.

The repeated claim that life teaches him nothing may express despair, but it may also be an accusation: experience has not provided clear guidance in a world where ideals seem compromised. His criticism of wealth and poverty is similarly nuanced. He rejects the assumption that money makes someone complacent, while also refusing to treat poverty as proof of honesty. The speaker’s uncertainty leaves open whether he lacks a path or distrusts the paths others offer.