L'écume des jour (泡沫人生)

How would you like to hear a jazz tune by Duke Ellington or for that matter some other jazz tune played on a piano fitted with all kinds of tubes through which flow different kinds wines and juices which would then be mixed together in beakers in synchronization with the relevant notes played thereon and then sample an exquisitely good tasting cocktail on a crystal glass? Sounds fantastic, doesn't it? Well, that's what we get at the start of the film called L'écume des Jours" adapted and co-written by Michel Gondry with Luc Brassi in 2003 from a novel of the same name first published in 1947 by French engineer, dramatist, poet, novelist, critic and jazz piano player Boris Vian and ranks second in the list of the 100 best books of the 20th century in France . It's a remake of a film on the same novel first done in 1968 by another director Charles Belmont..

Nana Mouskouri (娜都. 穆斯庫莉) & Charles Aznavour's "Mourir d'aimer"

One may think that Charles Aznavour is a most French talented singer who can sing in several European languages. But he has got another serious competitor in that regard. She is female, someone who has been studying classical music at the Athens Conservatoire since age 16 concentrating on opera singing, though she had been taking singing lessons since age 12, learning to sing by listening to radio broadcasts of singers like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Édith Piaf But she never completed her studies at the Conservatoire because of she loved singing jazz in Athens nightclubs.  She is Nana Mouskouri, born 1934 in Crete of a father who is the projectionist of the local cinema and her mother an usherette, a singer who has sold some 206 records worldwide. She has sung in Greek, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Hebrew, Welsh, Maori, Turkish and even Mandarin! She's been called the Barbara Streisand of Greece. She is a really versatile singer and sings pop, rock, French cabaret chansons,
movie songs, classical and operatic pieces, religious music, folk
songs from her native Greece and elsewhere. She has the voice of an angel because of a physiological abnormality: she got only one vocal cord instead of the normal two!

She first became famous in 1959, when she performed Hadjidakis' Kapou Iparchi I Agapi Mou,which she co-wrote with the poet Nikos Gatsos, at the inaugural Greek Song Festival. The song
won first prize Then in the 1960 Greek Song Festival, she performed two more Hadjidakis
compositions, Timōría ("Punishment") and Kyparissáki ("Little cypress") both ow which tied for first priz and later the same year, she performed Kostas
Yannidis' composition, Xypna Agapi Mou ("Wake up, my love"), at the
Mediterranean Song Festival in Barcelona and again won
first prize. After that she signed a recording contract with
Paris-based Philips-Fontana. The following year, she sung Weiße Rosen
aus Athen ("White Roses from Athens") on the  soundtrack of a German documentary
about Greece, a song  adapted
by Hadjidakis from a folk melody. It became a success, selling over a
million copies in Germany. The song was later translated into several
languages and it went on to become one of Mouskouri's signature tunes.

In 1963, Mouskouri sung "À force de prier" in Luxembourg's Eurovision Song Contest which helped win her the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque in France and then went on to achieve world fame. Michel Legrand wrote two hits for her: "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" (1964) and an arrangement of Katherine K.
Davis's "Carol of the Drum", "L'Enfant au Tambour" (1965),  She has many French hit from the 1967 French film Le Jour Où la Colombe: Au Cœur de Septembre, Adieu Angélina, Robe Bleue, Robe Blanche and the French pop classic Le Temps des Cerises.She has also got a Spanish hit Con Todo el Alma.

In 1993, Mouskouri was appointed as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, replacing Audrey Hepburn, helping to raise funds for Bosnia in Belgium and Sweden . She gave her final concert in 2008.  She is twice married and has two children. She now lives in Switzerland

Here we find her singing a duo with Charles Aznavour in a song that I love "Mourir d'aimer".

Mourir d’aimer Les parois de ma vie sont lisses Je m´y accroche mais je glisse Lentement vers ma destinée Mourir d´aimer Tandis que le monde me juge Je ne vois pour moi qu´un refuge Toute issue m´étant condamnée Mourir d´aimer Mourir d´aimer De plein gré s´enfoncer dans la nuit Payer l´amour au prix de sa vie Pécher contre le corps mais non contre l´esprit Laissons le monde à ses problèmes Les gens haineux face à eux-mêmes Avec leurs petites idées Mourir d´aimer Puisque notre amour ne peut vivre Mieux vaut en refermer le livre Et plutôt que de le brûler Mourir d´aimer Partir en redressant la tête Sortir vainqueur d´une défaite Renverser toutes les données Mourir d´aimer Mourir d´aimer Comme on le peut de n´importe quoi Abandonner tout derrière soi Pour n´emporter que ce qui fut nous, qui fut toi Tu es le printemps, moi l´automne Ton cœur se prend, le mien se donne Et ma route est déjà tracée Mourir d´aimer Mourir d´aimer Mourir d´aimer Nana Moukouri

我從不後悔什麼 我生命的內壁很平滑 我依附著它但我緩緩地 滑向我的命中注定的人 愛至死 當世界審判我 我衹視它為我的避難所 所有的出路均判我極刑 愛至死 愛至死 夜裡喜愛不斷深入 為愛付出生命 冒犯身軀的罪人但沒冒犯 靈性 滿盈仇恨的人們 把他們的自身的煩惱遺留給世界 以他們狹隘的意念面對他們自已 愛至死 因我們的愛情不能活下去 倒不如合上這本書 要把它燒掉寧可 愛至死 走時頭抬得高高 離去時猶失敗的征服者 把所有的既定事實推翻 愛至死 愛至死 猶若我們能勝任一切 把一切拋在各自身後 使我們只帶走屬我們的 屬你的 你是春，我是秋 你的心已被佔，我的心已交出 而我道路的軌跡已定 愛至死 愛至死 愛至死  娜都. 穆斯庫莉 愛梭羅(El Zorro) 譯….  ….

Edith Piaf's "Je ne regrette rien" (愛迪‧琵雅芙 我從不後悔什麼)

If one ever listens to any French songs, it's almost an impossibility not to have heard of one of her legendary singers. She travelled from Paris to all the capitals of Europe and to New York in the new world. She mesmerized everyone with her trembling voice, her gutteral rolling of the French letter "r" in

Charles Aznavour's "Les Bateaux Sont Partis" 查理士‧愛斯拿胡 〈船兒們已離開了〉

To me, "Hier Encore" is one of the best songs ever written. But if we think that that is the best that Charles Aznavour can do, one can't be more wrong. There is another, which in my opinion, matches that first one. It has been translated into and sung in Spanish and Italian because people so love it. So here it is, with my translation in Chinese. It's got a very simple and down to earth title: "Les Bateaux sont partis" , which literally means the ships are gone or 那些船已離開了. It's sung by Charles Aznavour and his friend the famous Spanish tenor Placido Domingo and in the Spanish version, by Aznavour alone.

Charles Aznavour's "Hier Encore" (查理士‧愛斯拿胡 重返昨日)

Amongst the singers of French songs, there's another one who has already become a legend: Charles Aznavour. Born as  Shahnour Vaghenag Aznavourian in 1924 Paris as the son of Armenian cook, he's a singer, songwriter, actor, activist and diplomat all rolled into one.