E.Piaf

This is a tribute to the Best French Song Ever

Hymn to Love, by Edith Piaf

I am French, but not a great fan of French Music in general. Though, there is a song that moves me over and over the years.  Whenever I’m abroad, hearing this song is like seeing the French flag.

This is a wonderful Hymn to Love.  Edith Piaf, real name Édith Giovanna Gassion, had a very harsh life. She had a one and only true love with boxer champion Marcel Serdan. No doubt she wrote the lyrics for him. But life had decided to be as cruel as can be for her. After one year of happiness, Marcel took a plane to rejoin her in the US. This plane crashed and he died.

After that Edith developped a disease that is known to happen after strong emotional shock: severe arthritis.

There is no cure for this, and she went on with her life in such pain that she was under morphine most of the time, especially before going on stage.

She was a most extraordinary women. Jean Cocteau, famous writer and french poet, wrote about her: “Je n’ai jamais connu d’être moins économe de son âme. Elle ne la dépensait pas, elle la prodiguait, elle en jetait l’or par les fenêtres”, meaning: “I’ve never known anyone less sparing of her soul. She was not spending it, she was giving it, throwing away the gold of it through the windows”.

When Jean Cocteau heard of Edith’s death, he felt it was too much. The next day, he died too.

I somehow feel connected to Edith Piaf, because, until the age of seven, I had a grand mother that looked just like her.

And also, when my father died, it was such a shock and a loss of love that my mother developed severe arthritis too.

There is an English version of this song, but the lyrics are such bullshit, that I need to give you a proper translation.

L’hymne à l’Amour/Hymn to love
by Édith Piaf

Le ciel bleu sur nous peut s’effondrer/Blue sky can collapse on us

Et la terre peut bien s’écrouler/And earth can very well disappear

Peu m’importe si tu m’aimes/It doesn’t matter me if you love me

Je me fous du monde entier/I don’t care about the whole world

Tant qu’l'amour inond’ra mes matins/As long as love will overwhelm my mornings

Tant que mon corps frémira sous tes mains/ As long as my body will shiver under your hands

Peu m’importent les problèmes/Problems don’t bother me

Mon amour puisque tu m’aimes/My love, because you love me

J’irais jusqu’au bout du monde/I would go up to the end of the earth

Je me ferais teindre en blonde/I would become a blond

Si tu me le demandais/If you asked me to

J’irais décrocher la lune/I would try to bring you back the moon

J’irais voler la fortune/I would rob a treasure

Si tu me le demandais/If you asked me to

Je renierais ma patrie/I would turn my back to my country

Je renierais mes amis/ turn my back on my friends

Si tu me le demandais/If you ever asked me to

On peut bien rire de moi/Go on laugh about me

Je ferais n’importe quoi/ I would do anything

Si tu me le demandais/ If you ever asked me so

Si un jour la vie t’arrache à moi/If one day, life took you apart away from me

Si tu meurs que tu sois loin de moi/ If you would die and be far from me

Peu m’importe si tu m’aimes/It doesn’t matter me if you love me

Car moi je mourrai aussi/Because then I would die too

Nous aurons pour nous l’éternité/We would have for us eternity

Dans le bleu de toute l’immensité/In the blue of unbounded sky

Dans le ciel plus de problèmes/In heaven no more troubles

Mon amour crois-tu qu’on s’aime/My love, are we in love?

Dieu réunit ceux qui s’aiment/God brings together the true lovers