Serge Reggiani (2 May 1922 – 23 July 2004) was an Italian-born French singer and actor. He was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy and moved to France with his parents at the age of eight.
After studying acting at the Conservatoire des arts cinématographiques, he was discovered by Jean Cocteau and appeared in the wartime production of Les Parents terribles. He then left Paris to join the French Resistance.
His first feature film was Les portes de la nuit ("Gates of the Night"), released in 1946. He went on to perform in 80 films in total, including Casque d'or, Les Misérables (1958),Tutti a casa, Le Doulos, Il Gattopardo, La terrazza, The Pianist (1998).
Reggiani also triumphed in the theatre in 1959 with his performance in Jean-Paul Sartre’s play Les Séquestrés d'Altona.
In 1965, at the age of 43, he began a second career as a singer, with the help of Simone Signoret and her husband Yves Montand, and later with the assistance of the French singer Barbara. Reggiani became one of the most acclaimed performers of French chanson and although he was in his 40s, his rugged image made him popular with both younger and older listeners. His best-known songs include Les loups sont entrés dans Paris ("The Wolves Have Entered Paris") and Sarah (La femme qui est dans mon lit) ("The Woman Who Is In My Bed"), the latter written by Georges Moustaki. He regularly sang songs by Boris Vian (Le Déserteur, Arthur où t'as mis le corps, La Java des bombes atomiques). His new young fans identified with his left-wing ideals and anti-militarism, most notably during the student revolts in France in 1968. With age he became more and more acclaimed as one of the best interpreters of the chanson, and also for bringing the poems of Rimbaud, Apollinaire and Prévert to new audiences.
Je voudrais pas crever (I wouldn't want to croak) is a collection of poetry by French author Boris Vian, published posthumously in 1962.
The set of 23 poems was first published by the famed publisher Jean-Jacques Pauvert, three years after the death of Vian in 1959 and at a time when his literary stock was rising on the heels of the publication of Romans et Nouvelles and the re-publication of L'Écume des jours. The collection is named for the title of the first poem; the manuscript has no title. The poems, many of which deal with tragedy and death, were written in 1951-51, when Vian was undergoing marital, financial, and creative difficulties. They are often discussed as if they are autobiographical.
In the edition edited by Noël Arnaud (first published in 1972 and republished in 1989), the poems are followed by four letters (written between 1953 and 1959) to the College of 'Pataphysics, the Parisian philosophical group of artists and writers dedicated to the study of what lies beyond metaphysics. Also included are two brief texts by Vian on literature and the role of the writer.
Je voudrais pas crever
Avant d' avoir connu
Les chiens noirs du Mexique
Qui dorment sans r? ver
Les singes? cul nu
D? voreurs de tropiques
Les araign? es d' argent
Au nid truff? de bulles
Je voudrais pas crever
Sans savoir si la lune
Sous son faux air de thune
A un c? t? pointu
Si le soleil est froid
Si les quatre saisons
Ne sont vraiment que quatre
Sans avoir essay?
De porter une robe
Sur les grands boulevards
Sans avoir regard?
Dans un regard d'? gout
Sans avoir mis mon zobe
Dans les coinstots bizarres
Je voudrais pas finir
Sans conna? tre la l? pre
Ou les sept maladies
Qu' on attrape l?-bas
Le bon, ni le mauvais
Ne me feraient pas de peine
Si si si je savais
que j' en aurais l'? trenne
Et il y a z' aussi
Tout ce que je connais
Tout ce que j' appr? cie
Que je sais qui me pla? t
le fond vert de la mer
O? valsent les brins d' algue
Sur le sable ondul?
L' herbe grill? e de juin
La terre qui craquelle
L' odeur des conif? res
Et les baisers de celle
Que ceci que cela
La belle que voil?
Mon ourson, l' Ursula
Je voudrais pas crever
Avant d' avoir us?
Sa bouche avec ma bouche
Son corps avec mes mains
Le reste avec mes yeux
J' en dis pas plus faut bien
Rester r? v? rencieux
Je voudrais pas mourir
Sans qu' on ait invent?
Les roses? ternelles
La journ? e de deux heures
La mer? la montagne
La montagne? la mer
La fin de la douleur
Les journaux en couleur
Tous les enfants contents
Et tant de trucs encore
Qui dorment dans les cr? nes
Des g? niaux ing? nieurs
Des jardiniers joviaux
Des soucieux socialistes
des urbains urbanistes
Et des pensifs penseurs
Tant de choses? voir
A voir et? z' entendre
Tant de temps? attendre
A chercher dans le noir
Et moi je vois la fin
Qui grouille et qui s' am? ne
Avec sa gueule moche
Et qui m'ouvre ses bras
De grenouille bancroche
Je voudrais pas crever
Non monsieur non madame
Avant d' avoir t? t?
Le go? t qui me tourmente
Le go? t qu' est le plus fort
Je voudrais pas crever
Avant d' avoir go? t?