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.
Il pleut
Édith Piaf Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Les pépins, tristes compagnons,
Comme d'immenses champignons,
Sortent un par un des maisons.
Il pleut
Et toute la ville est mouillée.
Les maisons se sont enrhumées.
Les gouttières ont la goutte au nez.
Comme dirigés par un appel,
Les oiseaux désertent le ciel.
Nuages et loups,
Les fenêtres, une larme à l'il
Semblent toutes porter le deuil
Des beaux jours.
Il pleut
Et l'on entend des clapotis.
La ville n'a plus d'harmonie.
Solitaires, les rues s'ennuient.
Il pleut
J'écoute,
Quand s'égoutte
La pluie qui me dégoûte
Sur les chemins des routes
Et, partout alentour,
Les gouttes
Qui s'en foutent
Ne savent pas sans doute
Que mon cœur en déroute
A perdu son amour
Il pleut.
Les pépins, tristes compagnons,
Comme d'immenses champignons,
Sortent un par un des maisons.
Il pleut
Et toute la ville est mouillée.
Les maisons se sont enrhumées.
Les gouttières ont la goutte au nez.
Il pleut.
La nature est chargée d'ennui.
Là-haut, tout est vêtu de gris.
Le ciel est boudeur.
Le nez aplati au carreau,
J'attends, laissant couler le flot de mes pleurs.
Il pleur.
Dans mon cœur aux rêves perdus,
Sur mon amour comme dans la rue
Et sur mes peines sans issue,
Il pleut
The song "Il Pleut" by Edith Piaf is a poetic reflection on the sadness and melancholy that accompanies a rainy day. Throughout the song, Piaf draws analogies between the rain and other objects, including the sad companionship of the drops and the houses that seem to catch a cold, and the raindrops' sound that echoes the singer's heartbreak. She also notes the absence of the birds and the solitude that the rain brings to the streets, emphasizing the melancholy atmosphere. The chorus of the song repeats several times, emphasizing the all-encompassing nature of the rain and how it touches everything and everyone in its path.
The second stanza of the song offers a more personal perspective, focusing on the emotions experienced by the singer as they listen to the rain. Piaf describes the raindrops as disgusting and notes how they fall all around with no regard for the singer's feelings, indicating their personal grief. She also contrasts the rain's indifference with the sadness experienced by the singer, who has lost love and feels alone and without hope, captured by the city's deserted and sad environment. The song ends with a final sad statement that summarizes the feelings conveyed throughout the song: "Il pleut" or "It rains," emphasizing the enduring presence of sadness in the singer's life.
Line by Line Meaning
Il pleut.
It's raining.
Les pépins, tristes compagnons,
The drops, sad companions,
Comme d'immenses champignons,
Like immense mushrooms,
Sortent un par un des maisons.
Come out one by one from the houses.
Il pleut
It's raining,
Et toute la ville est mouillée.
And the whole city is wet.
Les maisons se sont enrhumées.
The houses have caught a cold.
Les gouttières ont la goutte au nez.
The gutters have a runny nose.
Il pleut.
It's raining.
Comme dirigés par un appel,
As if directed by a call,
Les oiseaux désertent le ciel.
The birds desert the sky.
Nuages et loups,
Clouds and wolves,
Les fenêtres, une larme à l'il
Windows, a tear in their eye,
Semblent toutes porter le deuil
All seem to mourn
Des beaux jours.
For the beautiful days.
Il pleut
It's raining,
Et l'on entend des clapotis.
And one hears the patter.
La ville n'a plus d'harmonie.
The city has lost its harmony.
Solitaires, les rues s'ennuient.
Solitary, the streets are bored.
Il pleut
It's raining.
J'écoute,
I listen,
Quand s'égoutte
When it drips
La pluie qui me dégoûte
The rain that disgusts me
Sur les chemins des routes
On the roads and paths
Et, partout alentour,
And all around,
Les gouttes
The drops
Qui s'en foutent
Who don't care
Ne savent pas sans doute
Don't know, no doubt
Que mon cœur en déroute
That my heart, in disarray
A perdu son amour
Has lost its love.
Il pleut.
It's raining.
La nature est chargée d'ennui.
Nature is burdened with boredom.
Là-haut, tout est vêtu de gris.
Up there, everything is dressed in gray.
Le ciel est boudeur.
The sky is sulking.
Le nez aplati au carreau,
Nose flattened against the windowpane,
J'attends, laissant couler le flot de mes pleurs.
I wait, letting the flood of my tears flow.
Il pleur.
It weeps.
Dans mon cœur aux rêves perdus,
In my heart with lost dreams,
Sur mon amour comme dans la rue
On my love as in the street
Et sur mes peines sans issue,
And on my troubles without a solution,
Il pleut
It's raining.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: GLEN POWELL, JACQUES ROMAIN G. BREL, STEVE KIRK
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
French by Rita
So beautiful!! Merci :)