琵雅芙的故事

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小编看过《盗梦空间》后，发现有首歌特别适合做闹铃，就是影片里那首将人从梦境中唤醒的Non, je ne regrette rien（《不，我一点也不后悔》）。那么这首歌是谁唱的？她有什么样的故事？

伊迪丝·琵雅芙 Édith Piaf

1915—1963

France's famous singing star

My name was Edith Giovanna Gassion and my life did not begin well. I was born in France in the middle of the First World War, on 15th December 1915. My parents didn’t want me. They were young and enjoying life, and a child was not part of their plans. Annetta, my mother, was Italian, with North African parents. She sang in cafes. Louis, my father, was a street performer.

My mother left me with her mother in Paris. In 1916, my father joined the army, but before he went to fight, he came to see me. He was unhappy when he saw me because I was sick, and he felt that my grandmother wasn’t looking after me properly. He decided to take me to live with his mother in Normandy. Although she was kinder to me, my health didn’t improve. In fact, I developed an eye infection, and I began to lose my eyesight, which was very frightening. I couldn’t see for four years.

When I was 14, I became my father’s assistant in his street performance. Papa① was an acrobat② and there was a monkey in his show. I had two jobs. I had to collect money in a hat from the audience after each show, and I had to look after the monkey. If Papa liked a town, we sometimes stayed there for a while, and I could go to the local school. But we never stayed more than a few weeks, and soon we were travelling again. We were very poor, and I often had no shoes.

One cold winter’s day, Papa was ill. We had no money and nothing to eat, so I went to the town centre. It was market day and I put our collecting hat on the ground. I only knew one song — the French national song, which is called “La Marseillaise”. I sang with great feeling, as if I was trying to save Papa's life. People stopped to listen and I saw tears in their eyes. The hat filled with money, far more than we ever got for Papa’s show.

① papa 爸爸

② acrobat 杂技演员

Papa was very pleased, and after that, I always sang at the beginning of his show. I sang in the open air, like a bird. I couldn’t read very well, and it was hard to learn the words. But I loved entertaining the crowds, who usually wanted to hear more songs when I’d finished singing.

By the time I was 15, I knew I wanted to be a singer. It was time to leave Papa’s show, and start working on my own. He had done his best for me, and although I was sad to leave him, I was excited too.

I set off for Paris. In 1929, thousands of people lost all their money in the Wall Street Crash in the United States. Banks and businesses closed and millions of people lost their jobs. This had a big effect in Europe, and the 1930s were difficult years for everyone. I found a cheap hotel in an area of Paris called Montmartre, and then walked down a hill to an area called Pigalle.

There, I made friends with a homeless girl called Mômone, and I explained that I planned to earn money by singing. She offered to collect money in a hat while I sang. The plan worked, although we didn’t earn much money. We toured the city, staying in different hotels, but sometimes we had to sleep in the doorways① of shops.

① doorway 门口，门道，出入口 

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以上段落节选自“柯林斯名人故事集”第三级中的《了不起的表演家》，该丛书是学习英语、了解人物的理想读物。图片来自网络。

本系列丛书为英语分级注释读物，从柯林斯引进，全系列分为四级，每级5册，共20册，每册集中介绍一个领域的5-6个著名人物。正文部分以第一人称，用简明清晰的英文讲述人物生平故事。

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