“No Regrets” with Edith Piaf
A few film songs lift me from my deep mental agony grip. Not depression, but sporadic mood dips that are normal in the lives of ordinary human beings like you and me.
One such song, pardon me, is in French. Language is no barrier to enjoying good music or song. A song from the Steven Spielberg-directed Saving Private Ryan, released in 1998, had that impact. This Tom Hanks-Matt Damon film bagged Oscar awards in several categories, including the Best Picture and Best Director in Oscar 1999.
Ok, towards the film’s climax, there is a beautiful, soul-crushing song by Edith Piaf (she’s no more. RIP) in the background while Hank and his rescue team are evading and trying to overcome the German troops at the height of World War II in the Normandy invasion period.
The group of warriors, except Hanks and one French-knowing soldier, are unfamiliar with this song. As the song runs in the background amidst the rustle and bustle of the war front, the rest gets the translation from knowledgeable colleagues in their midst.
Here’s the English translation:
No, nothing at all
No, I do not regret anything
Nor the good that was done to me
nor evil
All that I care
It is paid, swept away, forgotten
I do not care about the past
With my memories
I started the fire
my sorrows, my pleasures
I do not need them anymore
Swept away the loves
With their tremolos
Swept away forever
I go back to zero
Nor the good that was done to me
nor evil
All that I care
Because my life
Because my joys
Today
It begins with you.
I call this the “No Regrets” song. No doubt, simple lyrics. You are carted to a different planet when such simple and straightforward words are sung with emotion.
The French singer Edith Piaf is no ordinary artist. Born as Édith Giovanna Gassion (19 December 1915–10 October 1963), groomed in a French brothel by her maternal grandparent after her mother abandoned her, her name was changed to Edith Piaf, meaning “The Little Sparrow,” by a club owner who scripted her new singing career keeping Piaf’s past in circus and street singing domain. She was a rage among the Nazi Germans and the Allied troops. Piaf’s songs are full of sorrow, love, and loss. By and large, autobiographical.
You can hear this song, “Non, Je ne regrette rien,”
in French, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Kvu6Kgp88
Few did not replay this song after the maiden listening. Check your emotional quotient before and after Piaf’s “No Regets” number.
I shall be back with another dispatch soon.
Ciao!
The writer, a hardcore business and economic journalist-cum-author, dives into the entertainment world to bust his emotional stresses regularly. He lives in Greater Noida, India, with his wife and a parrot. He is reachable at ramesh@konsultramesh.com
