By: Ivan Hewett / The Daily Telegraph Translation: Telegrafi.com
If any song deserves to be called "iconic", it is this song Non, You are in Regrette Rien [No, I don't regret anything] - composed by Charles Dumont [1929-2024], who passed away [November 18] at the age of 95. But iconic of what, exactly? A simple answer would be: the singer who made the song famous, Édith Piaf [1915-1963]. She herself was an icon of that unique, precious and now extinct form of French folk song known as chanson.
When Dumont and his lyricist, Michel Vaucaire, visited the famous singer in October 1960, it was their third attempt to convince her to sing one of their songs. Not surprisingly, Piaf had previously ignored both unknown authors. The 45-year-old star was at the peak of her career and, no doubt, overwhelmed by many well-known and aspiring authors. He had just sold all the tickets for two concerts in Carnegie [Carnegie Hall] and had completed a triumphant international tour. But her health was deteriorating and she passed out twice on stage from pancreatitis and jaundice. The media, pessimistic about its chances of survival, had called that tour the "suicide tour".
On that day in 1960, Piaf was in a bad mood and almost drove Dumont and Vaucaire away. But he softened, and after listening to the song five or six times, he was amazed. "She said it was magnificent, wonderful. That it was made for him. That it was she herself. That it would be her resurrection," Dumont recalled.
Piaf obviously had a lot to regret or not regret. She fell from one lover to another without a second thought, was addicted to alcohol and morphine and had survived five car accidents, which were symbolic of the way she lived.
But she was adored for that very French quality that combined the good and the bad of the art world. The Surrealists admired her, while she was adored by prominent writers who had a taste for popular art. The greatest of these, Jean Cocteau, actually died the day after Piaf - in October 1963; some say of a broken heart. Piaf herself denied any deep feelings in love. "I am a simple person who likes flowers and love stories," she once declared, but the depth of her songs suggests that this statement is a feigned naivety [faux-naiveté], more than a true innocence.
It is true that, on paper, this song itself is simple. Its harmony does not fit an aria from a Rossini opera, not until the final cadenza, when, for just a moment, the music is bathed in a Brodeuian glow that bursts through the strings. The simplicity of the music leaves all the attention on Piaf - which is exactly where it should be.
The timing of the song’s release, coming at a time of great upheaval in French politics and society, certainly gave it a special effect. French politics was deeply polarized between left and right, and the country was embroiled in a bloody war with its colony, Algeria. In October 1961, Parisian police killed up to 300 Algerian protesters. Three years earlier, in 1958, General De Gaulle had been forced out of retirement to “save the country.” He too could have declared—looking back on a life devoted to the glory of France—that he had nothing to regret.
The song was an immediate success and launched Dumont's career, who went on to compose 30 songs for Piaf and other French chanson stars, including Charles Aznavour. Three years later, Piaf died of her many illnesses, giving the song a new meaning - and not just to the French who found it hard to believe that she had died ("she's not dead, she's just gone," wrote one mournful journalist). Unlike her previous songs, which were rooted in harsh French realism, this song, along with others such as La Vie en Rose, quickly managed to spread globally.
Since Piaf's death, the song has been performed many times, in many languages, by artists such as Shirley Bassey, Elaine Paige, Italian singer Dalida and others. The song received dubious honor when it was quoted by Norman Lamont in 1992, when Britain left the European Exchange Mechanism, while it has been used on the soundtracks of many films, including Intolerable Cruelty by the Coen Brothers and Inception by Christopher Nolan, where the song plays a key role. (It serves as a "kick" that wakes the characters from their dreamlike states, while the film's composer, Hans Zimmer, included numerous references to the song in his score.)
It is certain that many, if not most, fans of the song do not understand the words - but they certainly understand the message of the song. Piaf's ecstatic and despairing rendition speaks to anyone who took risks - or would like to take risks. /Telegraph/
***
NO, I REGRET NOTHING
Text: Michel Vaucaire
Translated by: Çlirim Lazaj
No, but for nothing
No, I don't regret anything
Not even for the good that has been done to me
Not for the worse
Exactly the same!
No, but for nothing
No, I don't regret anything
It's paid, deleted, forgotten
It's not too late for the past!
With my memories
I lit the fire
My pains, my pleasures
I don't need them anymore!
I deleted the loves
And all their whispers
Deleted forever
I start over
No, but for nothing
No, I don't regret anything
Not even for the good that has been done to me
Not for the worse
Exactly the same
No, but for nothing
No, I don't regret anything
That my life, that my joys
Today starts with you
