Despite the numerous biographies, many facts and events of Édith's life are shrouded in mystery. She was born Édith Giovanna Gassion in Belleville, Paris, France, the high-immigration district later described by Daniel Pennac. Legend has it that she was born on the pavement of Rue de Belleville 72 but according to her birth certificate that was at Hôpital Tenon, the Belleville arrondissement hospital. She was named Édith after the executed British nurse Edith Cavell (Piaf —Parisian jargon for "sparrow"— came from a nickname she would receive twenty years later).
Her mother, Annetta Giovanna Maillard (1898 – 1945), was a partly-Italian 17-year-old girl, native of Livorno, working as a café singer under the pseudonym Line Marsa; from her, Édith took the middle name of Giovanna. Her father, Louis-Alphonse Gassion (1881 – 1944), was a street acrobat with a theatrical past. The little Édith was soon abandoned and left for a short time to her maternal grandmother, Mena (probably a Kabyle). Shortly after, Édith's father brought the child to his mother, who ran a brothel in Normandy, and then joined the French Army (1916). Thus Édith was in contact with the prostitutes and the various attenders of the brothel since her early years, a circumstance which must have had a deep impact on her personality and vision of life.
From the age of three to seven she was blind. As part of Piaf's legend, she allegedly recovered her sight after her grandmother's prostitutes went on a pilgrimage to Saint Thérèse de Lisieux. In 1929 she joined her father in his acrobatic street performances. Then took a room at Grand Hôtel de Clermont (18 rue Veron, Paris 18ème) and separated from him, going her own way as a street singer in Pigalle, Ménilmontant and Paris suburbs (cf. the song "Elle fréquentait la Rue Pigalle"). She was about 16 years of age when she fell in love with a delivery-boy, Louis Dupont, and shortly after had a child, a little girl named Marcelle. Sadly, Marcelle died in infancy of meningitis.
In 1935, Édith was discovered in the Pigalle area of Paris by the nightclub owner Louis Leplée, whose club was frequented by the upper and lower classes alike. He persuaded her to sing despite her extreme nervousness, which, combined with her height of only 4' 8" (142 cm) inspired him to give her the nickname that would stay with her for the rest of her life and become her stage name: La Môme Piaf (The Little Sparrow). Her first record was produced in the same year. Shortly afterwards, Leplée was murdered and Piaf was accused of being an accessory; she was acquitted.
In 1940, Jean Cocteau wrote the successful play Le Bel Indifférent for her to star in. She began to make friends with famous people, such as the actor Maurice Chevalier and the poet Jacques Borgeat. She wrote the lyrics of many of her songs, and collaborated with composers on the tunes.
Her signature song, "La vie en rose" (which was voted a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998) was written in the middle of the German occupation of Paris in World War II. During this time, she was in great demand and very successful. She befriended many high-ranking Germans and sang for them. It is said that she collaborated with the Nazis, too. After the war, she toured Europe, the United States, and South America, becoming an internationally known figure. Her popularity in the U.S. was such that she appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show eight times. She helped to launch the career of Charles Aznavour, taking him on tour with her in France and the United States.
The great love of Piaf's life, the boxer Marcel Cerdan, died in 1949. Piaf was married twice. Her first husband was Jacques Pills, a singer; they married in 1952 and divorced in 1956. Her second husband, Theophanis Lamboukas (also known as Théo Sarapo), was a hairdresser-turned-singer and actor, and was twenty years younger than Piaf; they married in 1962.
In 1951 she was in a car accident, and thereafter had difficulty breaking a serious morphine habit.
The Paris Olympia is the place where Piaf achieved fame and where, just a few months before her death, she gave one of her most memorable concerts while barely able to stand. In early 1963, Piaf recorded her last song, "L'homme de Berlin".
At the early age of 47, Piaf died of cancer in Plascassier, on the French riviera, on October 10, 1963. Her friend Jean Cocteau, very shocked and afflicted by her death, died a few hours later. Her body was returned to Paris where her death was only announced on October 11, the official date of her death. She was buried in Père Lachaise cemetery, Paris. Although she was forbidden a Mass by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Paris (because of her lifestyle), her funeral procession drew hundreds of thousands of mourners onto the streets of Paris and the ceremony at the cemetery was jammed with more than forty thousand fans. Charles Aznavour recalled that Piaf's funeral procession was the only time, since the end of World War II, that Parisian traffic came to a complete stop.
There is a museum dedicated to Piaf, the Musée Édith Piaf at 5, rue Crespin du Gast, 75011, Paris.
Today she is still remembered and revered as one of the greatest singers France has ever produced. Her life was one of sharp contrasts: the range of her fame as opposed to her tragic personal life, and her fragile small figure on stage with the resounding power of her voice.
Dans leur baiser
Édith Piaf Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Dans leur baiser désepéré
Tous les regrets, tous les chagrins du monde entier
Tout le chagrin de deux amants
Que le destin va séparer
De deux amants qui ont compris
Que c'est fini
Qu'un pauvre baiser d'adieu
Ce n'étaient, parmi tant d'autres
Que deux coeurs très malheureux
Il y avait dans leur baiser
Dans leur baiser désepéré
Le désarroi d'un grand amour qui s'est brisé
Le désarroi d'un grand amour
Contre lequel tout s'est ligué
Il y avait dans leur baiser
Deux vies ratées
Ce n'était, parmi tant d'autres
Qu'un pauvre baiser d'adieu
Ce n'étaient, parmi tant d'autres
Que deux coeurs très malheureux
Il y avait dans leur baiser
Dans leur baiser désepéré
Ce grand secret dont les passants se moquaient bien
Dont les passants se moquaient bien
Comme ils s'étaient moqués de nous
Moqués de nous, ah! ce triste soir
Comme ce soir
Ce n'était, parmi tant d'autres
Qu'un pauvre baiser d'adieu
Mais soudain, c'était le nôtre
Mais soudain, c'était nous deux
Et c'était toi, et c'était nous
Que tout d'un coup je voyais là
Dans ce baiser
Dans ce baiser désepéré
The lyrics of Edith Piaf's song Dans leur baiser speaks about a desperate kiss between two lovers who are about to be separated by destiny. The first stanza reveals that their kiss contains all the regrets and sorrows of the entire world. The two lovers understand that their love has come to an end and that their farewell kiss is only a poor one among many others.
In the second stanza, the kiss reveals the despair of a great love that has shattered, leaving the lovers feeling hopeless. The second stanza further underlines how all that could go wrong has indeed gone wrong in their relationship. The kiss contains their two wasted lives.
The song's final stanza talks about the secret that the passersby mocked in their relationship, just as they ridiculed the kiss between the two lovers. However, despite the mockery, the kiss had great meaning for them. Suddenly, the kiss becomes the kiss between the two of them, and they understand that it is indeed a desperate one.
Overall, the song talks about the tragedy of love that has met its end, and the sorrow that comes with a failed relationship. It reveals how the lovers' last kiss contains all the sorrows and regrets of their lives together, which are desperate and without hope.
Line by Line Meaning
Il y avait dans leur baiser
Their kiss contained
Dans leur baiser déespéré
In their desperate kiss
Tous les regrets, tous les chagrins du monde entier
All the regrets and sorrows of the whole world
Tout le chagrin de deux amants
All the pain of two lovers
Que le destin va séparer
Whom fate is about to separate
De deux amants qui ont compris
Of two lovers who have realized
Que c'est fini
That it's over
Ce n'était, parmi tant d'autres
It was just, among so many others
Qu'un pauvre baiser d'adieu
A poor farewell kiss
Ce n'étaient, parmi tant d'autres
They were just, among so many others
Que deux coeurs très malheureux
Two very unhappy hearts
Le désarroi d'un grand amour qui s'est brisé
The distress of a great love that has broken
Le désarroi d'un grand amour
The distress of a great love
Contre lequel tout s'est ligué
Against which everything conspired
Il y avait dans leur baiser
Their kiss contained
Deux vies ratées
Two failed lives
Ce grand secret dont les passants se moquaient bien
That great secret that passersby didn't care about
Dont les passants se moquaient bien
Which passersby didn't care about
Comme ils s'étaient moqués de nous
Just like they had laughed at us
Moqués de nous, ah! ce triste soir
Laughed at us, ah! that sad evening
Mais soudain, c'était le nôtre
But suddenly, it was ours
Mais soudain, c'était nous deux
But suddenly, it was the two of us
Et c'était toi, et c'était nous
And it was you, and it was us
Que tout d'un coup je voyais là
That suddenly I saw there
Dans ce baiser
In this kiss
Dans ce baiser déespéré
In this desperate kiss
Writer(s): Charles Dumont, Michel Vaucaire
Contributed by Brayden F. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Borislav Kostov
Il y avait dans leur baiser
Dans leur baiser désespéré
Tous les regrets, tous les chagrins du monde entier
Tout le chagrin de nos amants
Que le destin va séparer
De deux amants qui ont compris
Que c'est fini...
Ce n'était parmi tant d'autres
Qu'un pauvre baiser d'adieu
Ce n'étaient parmi tant d'autres
Que deux coeurs très malheureux
Il y avait dans leur baiser
Dans leur baiser désespéré
Le désarroi d'un grand amour qui s'est brisé
Le désarroi d'un grand amour
Contre lequel tout s'est ligué
Il y avait dans leur baiser
Deux vies ratées
Ce n'était parmi tant d'autres
Qu'un pauvre baiser d'adieu
Ce n'étaient parmi tant d'autres
Que deux coeurs très malheureux
Il y avait dans leur baiser
Dans leur baiser désespéré
Ce grand secret dont les passants se moquaient bien
Dont les passants se moquaient bien
Comme ils s'étaient moqués de nous
Moqués de nous, ah! Ce triste soir
Comme ce soir...
Ce n'était parmi tant d'autres
Qu'un pauvre baiser d'adieu
Mais soudain, c'était le nôtre
Mais soudain, c'était nous deux...
Et c'était toi, et c'était nous
Que tout d'un coup je voyais là...
Dans ce baiser
Dans ce baiser désespéré...