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"Non, je ne regrette rien" (French pronunciation: ​[nɔ̃ ʒə nə ʁəɡʁɛtə ʁjɛ̃], meaning "No, I regret nothing") is a French song composed by Charles Dumont, with lyrics by Michel Vaucaire. It was written in 1956, and is best known throughÉdith Piaf's 1960 recording, which spent seven weeks atop the French Singles & Airplay Reviews chart.[1]

Piaf dedicated her recording of the song to the French Foreign Legion.[2] At the time of the recording, France was engaged in a military conflict, the Algerian War (1954–1962), and the 1st REP (1st Foreign Parachute Regiment) — which backed a temporary putsch of 1961 by the French military against president Charles de Gaulle and the civilian leadership of Algeria — adopted the song when their resistance was broken. The leadership of the Regiment was arrested and tried but the non-commissioned officers, corporals and Legionnaires were assigned to other Foreign Legion formations. They left the barracks singing the song, which has now become part of the French Foreign Legion heritage and is sung when they are on parade.[3]

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 [hide*1 Lyrics

Lyrics[edit][]

The rhymes of the words echo the rhythm of the melody following typical French meter, where words almost always stress the final syllable, in iambic and anapestic compositions. A literal translation is unable to maintain the internal harmony of lyric and tune, since English words usually stress an earlier syllable and are most often suited to trochaic (DA-da-DA-da) and dactylic (DA-da-da-DA-da-da) meter. A variety of English language versions have been recorded. Discussion of their merits is ongoing.[4] The superlative, all-encompassing object arousing the transcendent emotions of the lover singing the song, and the use of passive reflexive verb (ni le bien qu'on m'a fait / ni le mal) to describe good and bad perceived by a person can be rendered (not the good that one did to me / nor the bad) using the absolute impersonal pronoun.[5]

Other recordings[edit][]

The song has been recorded by many other performers, including :

Other languages[edit][]

  • "Ne oplakujem" (Croatian) by Tereza Kesovija in 1962.
  • "Ne oplakujem" (Croatian) by Ana Štefok in 1964.
  • "Ne, ne žalim ni za čim" (Serbian) by Lola Novaković in 1964.

In popular culture[edit][]

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