By Jean-Jacques Goldman, 1997.

French lyrics
singles video
concert video
longer clip showing lead-up to the concert version (Worth viewing to see the leadup to the song -- some very deliberate staging going on -- and to watch JJG play the crowd while teaching them choruses to various songs.)



On an arm, the fingers are curled
for attacking, the fists for gripping
But our palms are for loving
There is no caressing with closed hands

Lengths, joints in a prayer
Wide open for applauding
Within a fist, things are taken away
One can hold nothing with fingers turned down

[Chorus]
When we open our hands
It's not enough, ten times nothing
One or two seconds is enough
To make an effort, another world
When we open our hands

Motion simple and easy
of the veins and ten metacarpals
The phalanges of the cooperative tendons
and you release or you still keep

And the nails were made for scratching
They reach to the end of a bad side
They which threaten or indicate
to others we live our lives within the lines

[chorus]

A single human gesture
When we loosen our fists like so
When we spread our fingers
without mistrust, lend our arms to change
the battlefields into gardens

The courage of shaking hands [1]
A gift from yesterday to tomorrow
Nothing but only a moment of innocence
A gesture of promise
When we open like cases
When we open our hands


[1] Literally "An Indian sign." I originally translated this as "a curse," after surfing around for a bit and reading a discussion about the phrase, but then I came across this bit from an interview:

Gilbert Jouin : Dans "Nos mains", vous vous livrez à une étude quasi anatomique...

Jean-Jacques Goldman : Ma fille cadette s'est fait un plaisir de me fournir les éléments exacts. J'ai toujours été fasciné par les mains. Le revers de la main est agressif, quand on la ferme, elle devient un poing. Mais dès qu'on la retourne et qu'on présente la paume, elle devient douce, caressante, généreuse. Quand je suis allé visiter une réserve indienne dans le Wyoming, j'ai appris que la plus grande humiliation pour un ennemi était de se faire toucher la main.

[Jouin: In "Our Hands," you deliver a rather anatomical study...

Goldman: My younger daughter found it fun to supply me with the exact names of each part. The back of a hand is aggressive - when you close it, it becomes a fist. But when you come back and extending your palm, your hand becomes gentle, tender, generous. When I visited an Indian reservation in Wyoming, I learned that the most humiliating thing one could do to an enemy was to force them to shake one's hand.]