@420soccermom As demonstrated by the God-awful “official” translations of some of Stromae’s other videos (for example, “Humain à l'Eau”) the translators that Stromae employ often aren’t very reliable. As a result, I try to translate the lyrics myself, trying to convey as closely as possible the nuances of Stromae’s prose; however, that isn’t always possible and some metaphors, similies, what have you will get lost in translation.

Concerning your interpretation of the lyrics, I’ve checked the French annotation for this couplet and it seems even Francophones don’t seem to interpret Stromae as referencing the rearing of a child. There is more convincing evidence supporting the milestone interpretation, as 3-years seem to embedded into French/Belgian culture (i.e. Beigbeder’s L'Amour Dure Trois Ans).

Thank you for your comment, though!

Based on the subtitles in the official video for this song (he writes “3 years OLD, 7 years OLD”), I think he might be telling the man to raise the child first, and then see it the married life is actually wonderful. The talk about raising kids would then connect it to the last line about Stromae raising a monkey (and raising it well) since he can’t have his own kids.

He could also be referring to calling the lady baby earlier as in he is not able to be in a relationship and has no one to call that.

On top of what AshHeart said, Baby is not only informal but diminutive and somewhat disrespectful. Mademoiselle is more respectful and presumably more “P.C.” – hence the active self-correction. It’s pretty odd that the original annotation doesn’t address the self-correction at all.

Baby is something he would call someone he was in a relationship with, but his wonderful relationship is now over and he must catch himself and switch from calling the lady a very informal “baby” to “miss”.

C'est également une double inversion. Les passents le regardent comme un singe, un macaque. Un mot insultant dénotant les nords-africains est macaque.

Il y a aussi une histoire de racisme (globale et personnelle) que Stromae discute dans l'interview ici. Il raconte un temps quand un innconu voit Stromae (un personne noir) et ses amis dans la rue et l'innconu les appellent des “macaques.” Au sens figure, les mots hantent Stromae jusqu'au moment ou il ecrit la chanson. Pour d'etre bref, c'est une insulte raciale. Information supplementaire Je regrette que je n'explique plus et que l'article precedent est en Anglais, mais je ne comprends pas le francais tres tres bien)

Dans la contexte de la chanson, je pense qu'il y ya duex interpretations. Peut-etre que la remarque est addresse au personage principal, et donc, c'est possible que ce signifie qu'il est, comme Stromae et ses amis, une personne noire. Mais c'est possible que le personage principal appelle les “vous” dans la chanson des macaques. Si c'est vrai, le personage principal pourrait inverser la signification de la phrase et l'histoire de sa phrase. Les saints (ou sains) sont les macaques. Donc, ces saints semblent beaux, mais ils sont vraiment laide aussi comme le personage principal qui est laide et mechant et triste. Dans ce contexte, la duexieme interpretation brouille la distance entre la personage principal et les “vous.” Les saints et les laides vivent ensemble a ce moment. On peut dire que le personage principal a insulte les “vous” pour etre ne pas si seul, ou pour montrer qu'il y a un rapport entre les deux.