Non, je ne regrette rien
"Non, je ne regrette rien" is a French song written in 1956 which is best known through the recording made by French singer, Édith Piaf, on 10 November, 1960. Its title translates as "No, I regret nothing" but has often been rendered simply as "No regrets". It was composed by Charles Dumont and its lyrics, describing the singer's defiant attitude toward the past, were written by Michel Vaucaire.
Piaf dedicated her recording of the song to the French Foreign Legion.[1] At the time of the recording, France was engaged in a military conflict, the Algerian War of Independence (1956–1962), and the Legion—who had backed a temporary putsch by the French military against the civilian leadership of Algeria—adopted the song when their resistance was broken in April 1961, singing it as they were ordered at gunpoint aboard evacuation vehicles.[2] The song remains popular with the Legion and is sung when they are on parade.
Ironically, the song was adopted as "a personal anthem" by a person on the diametrically opposite politcal pole - the former Dutch colonial soldier Johan Cornelis Princen (better known as Poncke Princen) who in 1948 deserted, joined the pro-independence Indonesian rebels fighting against the Dutch, lived out the rest of his life as an Indonesian political and human rights activist, and spent more than eight years in the prisons of his adopted country, under various dicatorships. From his own point of view, he too cited the sentiments expressed in Piaf's song as reflecting his own.[3]
Recordings and performances
The song has been recorded or performed live by many artists aside from Piaf, including Elaine Paige, Tina Arena, Isabelle Boulay, Garou, Patricia Kaas, and Marc Lavoine.
Popular culture
In the United Kingdom, the song was at one time associated with the former Conservative Party Chancellor of the Exchequer, Norman Lamont, who is said to have sung it in the bath on the night of the country's withdrawal from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992. Lamont later quoted the song's title to sum up his political career.[4]
- The song is featured in a number of movies, including Babe: Pig in the City. the last scene of Bernardo Bertolucci's film The Dreamers (2003), the 2005 film Monamour, and the British 3D animated WWII movie The Valiant in which members of the French Resistance "play" it, twelve years before the song was written. It was mashed up in the song "Nique la police," which appears in the French film La Haine (1995).
- It is also used in many commercials, including an Ebay commercial in which a woman drops her ring down the sink, and an Australian NESCAFE TV commercial in the early 1990s
Lyrics (French)
- Non, rien de rien
- Non, je ne regrette rien
- Ni le bien qu'on m'a fait
- Ni le mal... tout ça m'est bien égal !
- Non, rien de rien
- Non, je ne regrette rien
- C'est payé, balayé,
- Oublié... je me fous du passé !
- Avec mes souvenirs
- J'ai allumé le feu
- Mes chagrins, mes plaisirs
- Je n'ai plus besoin d'eux
- Balayés les amours
- Avec leurs trémolos
- Balayés pour toujours
- Je repars à zéro
- Non, rien de rien
- Non, je ne regrette rien
- Ni le bien qu'on m'a fait
- Ni le mal... tout ça m'est bien égal
- Non, rien de rien
- Non, je ne regrette rien
- Car ma vie, car mes joies
- Aujourd'hui, ça commence avec toi !
References
- ^ Cooke, James J. (1990). "Alexander Harrison, Challenging de Gaulle: The O.A.S. and the Counterrevolution in Algeria, 1954–1962". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. Boston: Boston University African Studies Center.
- ^ Porch, Douglas (1991). The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-43427-7
- ^ Ed McWilliams, former US Foreign Service Officer, in The Jakarta Post, February 28, 2002 [1]
- ^ Johnston, Philip (16 Mar. 2004). "It ain't over till the Home Secretary sings". The Daily Telegraph.