七十年不曾褪色的玫瑰人生：La Vie en Rose

“當他擁我入懷/低聲對我說話/我看見玫瑰色的人生”劉歡與蘇菲瑪索的演唱讓廣大中國觀眾了解到了這支蜚聲世界的法國香頌。曲子背后，是一位有著傳奇人生的女歌手，由她的人生經歷改編而成的電影拿下了奧斯卡小金人。今天我們就來走進這支經久不衰的浪漫旋律，和它背后的人生故事。

Written in a pavement café on the Champs Elysées in 1945, “La Vie en rose” was a song whose giddy romance swept the French national spirit from the ashes of the second world war and sent it soaring around the world.The sole author of this phoenix song was France's “l(fā)ittle sparrow”：Edith Piaf.1945年，“La Vie en rose”誕生于香榭麗舍大道的一家露天咖啡館。這首歌，帶著些輕佻的浪漫，掃清二戰(zhàn)的余燼，讓法國民族精神再次煥發(fā)，并響徹世界。這首長盛不衰的歌曲的唯一作者是法國“小麻雀”Edith Piaf。

Born Edith Gassion in 1915 and discovered singing on the streets of Paris's red light district in 1935, Piaf was a singer whose career had taken flight during the second world war.Though not a conventional beauty, the 4ft 10in diva was a volcano of drama, whose murky tales of murder, abandonment and prostitution were given an added frisson by her guttural vibrato.

原名Edith Gassion的她出生于1915年。1935年，她在巴黎紅燈區(qū)的街道上唱歌時被發(fā)掘。二戰(zhàn)期間，Piaf聲名鵲起。盡管并不是傳統(tǒng)意義上的美人，這位4英尺10英寸高的天后的人生依然頗具傳奇色彩，她顫抖的喉音，讓謀殺、被拋棄、賣淫這些陰暗的故事傳言，又多了一絲恐怖的成分。

Piaf sang through the war as through the tragedies in her personal life, which included the death of her two-year-old daughter from meningitis in 1935 and that of her great love, the boxer Marcel Cerdan, who was killed in a plane crash in 1949.

無論是在戰(zhàn)爭年代，還是她人生中的艱難歲月，Piaf一直在唱歌，即便在1935年，她兩歲的女兒因腦膜炎而夭折， 1949年，她摯愛的丈夫，拳擊手Marcel Cerdan死于空難，她也沒有停止。

Performing for the occupying Germans as well as her fellow countrymen, Piaf was briefly branded a collaborator.But rumours of Nazi-pleasing were firmly quashed in 1945 when resistance leaders revealed that Piaf had smuggled maps and compasses to French POWs during her prison camp tours.She also posed for photographs with inmates; the photographs were used to create fake identity documents and enabled many prisoners to escape.

Piaf不僅為她的同胞唱歌，也曾給德國占領軍表演，因此，Piaf曾在一段時間里被斥為通敵者。但1945年，抵抗軍領袖透露Piaf在戰(zhàn)俘營巡演期間曾把地圖和指南針偷偷帶給法國戰(zhàn)俘，為納粹獻媚的流言也就不攻自破。她也曾和戰(zhàn)俘一起拍攝照片，這些照片后來被用于偽造身份文件，很多戰(zhàn)俘因此得以逃脫。

After the war, as France sucked up Marshall Plan money and morale-boosting jazz records from the US, Piaf went for a drink with her friend Marianne Michel.The younger singer complained that nobody was writing her any new songs, so Piaf grabbed a piece of paper and dashed off “La Vie en rose” for her.

戰(zhàn)后，法國不僅獲得了美國馬歇爾計劃的經濟援助，也從美國引進了令人振奮的爵士音樂。Piaf與朋友Marianne Michel一起喝酒時，這位年輕一些的歌手對Piaf抱怨沒人給她寫新歌了。因此Piaf抓起一張紙，并一口氣創(chuàng)作出了“La Vie en rose”。

The song's central metaphor—of seeing the world afresh, through rose-tinted glasses—was something Piaf knew all about, having been blind for several years in her childhood and claiming to have been cured, aged seven, after the prostitutes working in her grandmother's brothel pooled their earnings to send her on a Catholic pilgrimage.

這首歌最核心的象征——透過玫瑰色的玻璃，看到一個嶄新的世界——Piaf非常了解這種感受。Piaf自稱，童年時，她曾經失明，多虧7歲時奶奶家妓院中的妓女傾囊相助，讓她去朝圣，才最終治愈。

Michel recorded the song first—a sweet, xylophone-frosted version—with Piaf laying down her own, definitive version two years later.As a hymn to a love affair so beautiful that it allows the singer to forget all “l(fā)es ennuis, les chagrins” （weariness and grief）, it saw the tragedienne, like her nation, transcend pain.

Michel第一個錄制了這首歌，她的版本由木琴伴奏，非常甜美。兩年后，Piaf又錄制了自己的最終版。這支歌頌愛情的曲子如此優(yōu)美，讓歌手們忘記了一切“l(fā)es ennuis, les chagrins”（煩惱與痛苦），它見證了這位悲劇女伶和她的祖國如何平復傷痛。

Piaf's melody whisks you up in its arms and takes you for a slow, dreamy twirl, briefly breaking hold for a few spoken sections before resuming the dance.Her version sold more than 1m copies and made her name across the Atlantic, where Americans were startled to behold such a tiny woman in a simple black frock, exuding none of the Hollywood glamour to which they were accustomed.

Piaf的曲子拂過，猶如將你輕輕攬入懷中，再帶著你緩慢地，夢幻般地旋轉，在幾段唱詞中簡短地停頓后繼續(xù)跳舞。Piaf的唱片銷量高達一百萬張，讓她的名字在大西洋彼岸的美國傳頌。美國人驚訝地打量這位身著黑色連衣裙的嬌小女人，在她身上，美國人找不出他們習以為常的好萊塢式的魅力。

詞匯總結

giddy[?g?di]

adj.頭暈的;眼花的;輕浮的，輕佻的;輕狂的

vt.& vi.使眩暈;使眼花

Written in a pavement café on the Champs Elysées in 1945, “La Vie en rose” was a song whose giddy romance swept the French national spirit from the ashes of the second world war and sent it soaring around the world.

1945年，“La Vie en rose”誕生于香榭麗舍大道的一家露天咖啡館。這首歌，帶著些輕佻的浪漫，掃清二戰(zhàn)的余燼，讓法國民族精神再次煥發(fā)，并響徹世界。

murky[?m?:ki]

adj.陰暗的，昏暗的；朦朧的，含糊的，曖昧的

adv.陰暗地，混濁地，可疑地

Though not a conventional beauty, the 4ft 10in diva was a volcano of drama, whose murky tales of murder, abandonment and prostitution were given an added frisson by her guttural vibrato.

盡管并不是傳統(tǒng)意義上的美人，這位4英尺10英寸高的天后的人生依然頗具傳奇色彩，她顫抖的喉音，讓謀殺、被拋棄、賣淫這些陰暗的故事傳言，又多了一絲恐怖的成分。

meningitis[?men?n?d?a?t?s]

n.腦膜炎

Piaf sang through the war as through the tragedies in her personal life, which included the death of her two-year-old daughter from meningitis in 1935 and that of her great love, the boxer Marcel Cerdan, who was killed in a plane crash in 1949.

無論是在戰(zhàn)爭年代，還是她人生中的艱難歲月，Piaf一直在唱歌，即便在1935年，她兩歲的女兒因腦膜炎而夭折， 1949年，她摯愛的丈夫，拳擊手Marcel Cerdan死于空難，她也沒有停止。

quash[kw??]

vt.[法]廢除，使無效;搗碎，壓碎；平息，鎮(zhèn)壓

But rumours of Nazi-pleasing were firmly quashed in 1945 when resistance leaders revealed that Piaf had smuggled maps and compasses to French POWs during her prison camp tours.

但1945年，抵抗軍領袖透露Piaf在戰(zhàn)俘營巡演期間曾把地圖和指南針偷偷帶給法國戰(zhàn)俘，為納粹獻媚的流言也就不攻自破。