"Ce n'est rien" (A Little Fall of Rain)

The climax of the uprising is near and this is Éponine’s “swan song” as she lays dying on the barricade in Marius’ arms. Éponine is a daughter of the rapacious innkeepers Thénardier. She grew up as a spoiled child until they lost their inn and descended into petty thievery. They moved to Paris and she became a street urchin and joined their mischief. She also became infatuated with Marius who lived next door but was of higher social standing and cared little for her. She had been jealous of Cosette even when they lived together as children in the Thénardier’s inn but now she loves Marius while Marius loves Cosette. Éponine’s jealousy makes her duplicitous in her role as a courier for messages between them.

Cosette lived with the Thénardiers while her mother Fantine worked her fingers to the bone, and they treated her like a servant. Following Fantine’s death from consumption, Jean Valjean “bought” Cosette from the Thénardiers and she flourished with his protection. With the revolution mounting and Javert on his tail, however, Valjean decides to flee with Cosette to England. Cosette gave Éponine a letter for Marius that tells her new address in England.

Instead, Éponine kept the letter and encouraged Marius to join the barricades so they could be/die together. She dressed like a boy so she could accompany him to the fight. At a critical moment she saved his life by stepping into the path of a bullet.

“Ce n’est rien” (It’s Nothing), Paris 1980

“Ce n’est rien” opened Act 3 in Paris. In a blend of agency and sacrifice Éponine stopped a bullet intended for Marius and chose to die in his arms rather than go on living without him. Although Éponine had concealed Cosette’s letter to Marius telling her new address in England, she relents and gives it to him before she dies. She knows she is bleeding and will die and that Marius and Cosette will marry soon. She tries to put Marius at ease by saying "ce n'est rien" ("It is nothing"). She is rather clinical about her last moments, referring (4 times) to her weeping blood as the final expression of rain with the color of death from a heart than never served anyone.

The song has stanzas of various length that nevertheless maintain a varied rhyme sequence, with special emphasis on “uie” sounds: “pluie,” “vie,” “nuit,” “servi,” “reunir.”

For persons with further interest, Éponine's farewell monologue from Victor Hugo's book is included at the very bottom of this page. It sheds interesting light on the nature of the relationship between Éponine and Marius in Hugo's tale.

Marianne Mille had the role of Éponine in the 1980 Paris show and Gilles Buhlmann played Marius.

Original French

Éponine

Ce n’est rien, Monsieur Marius

Qu’un peu de sang qui pleure

Dernier chagrin de pluie

Aux couleurs de la mort

Qui siffle en rafales au dehors

Dernier chagrin de pluie

Dernier élan de vie

D’un coeur qui n’a servi à personne

Marius

Mais tu vas vivre, Ponine, regarde-moi

L’amour saura refermer ta blessure

Éponine

Même l’amour ne peut rien pour moi

Prenez-moi dans vos bras

Éponine & Marius

Ce n’est rien, non ce n’est rien

Qu’un peu de sang qui pleure

Dernier chagrin de pluie

Aux couleurs de la nuit

Qui va bientôt enfin nous reunir

Dernier chagrin de pluie

Dernier élan de vie

D’un coeur qui n’a servi à personne

Éponine

Ce n’est que moi qui pars, vous restez là

Et comme à la noce, je serai absente

Voilà sa lettre, c’est mon cadeau

Quelques mois à l’avance

Ce n’est rien, non ce n’est rien

Q’un peu de sang qui pleure

Dernier chagrin de pluie

Aux couleurs de la nuit

Qui va bientôt enfin nous reunir

Dernier chagrin de pluie

(Marius: Elle n’a vécu que pour les autres)

Dernier élan de vie

(Marius: L’amour qu’elle n’a pas eu, elle me l’offre)

D’un coeur qui n’a servi à personne

Translation

Éponine

It’s nothing, Monsieur Marius

Only a bit of blood that weeps

Last sorrow of rain

In colors of death

That whistles in gusts outside

Last sorrow of rain

Last burst of life

Of a heart that never served anyone

Marius

But you will live, ‘Ponine, look at me.

Love will know how to close your wound

Éponine

Even love can do nothing for me

Take me in your arms.

Éponine & Marius

It’s nothing, no, it’s nothing,

Only a bit of blood that weeps

Last sorrow of rain

In colors of the night

Which will soon reunite us at last

Last sorrow of rain

Last burst of life

Of a heart that never served anyone

Éponine

It’s only me who leaves, you stay here.

And as for the wedding, I’ll be gone.

Here’s her letter, it’s my present

A few months in advance

It’s nothing, no it’s nothing

Only a bit of blood that weeps

Last sorrow of rain

In colors of the night

Which will soon reunite us at last

Last sorrow of rain

(Marius: She only lived for others)

Last burst of life

(Marius: The love she didn’t have, she offers me)

Of a heart that never served anyone

Adaptation: A Little Fall of Rain, London 1985

This song experiences a lyric and name transformation from "Ce n'est rien" ("It's nothing") at Paris in 1980. It becomes “A Little Fall of Rain” for the 1985 English version in London. The new title and lyric suggest poetic evasion by lyricist Herb Kretzmer and perhaps by Éponine as well. She may have believed that a little pretense served her immediate needs best, given her desperate situation. All she cared about was being with Marius. So, in this version, she avoids the distractions of Cosette’s letter to Marius, their upcoming wedding or Cosette’s move to England, and the fact that she is dying. A little rain can hardly hurt her now. A side-by-side comparison of the original French lyrics, English translation, and Herbert Kretzmer's adaptation is available here.

As she dies in Marius’ arms, with blood streaming from a wound, Éponine claims it is rain. Whether she is hallucinating or intentionally dissembling is unclear. She adds a measure of hope that the rain will "wash away my past" and "make the flowers grow” after the revolution succeeds. This nice metaphor was absent from Paris 1980 as well as from Victor Hugo's book. In both, Éponine clearly knew it was blood and that she was dying without illusions about rain or flowers. In reality, the blood drains her body of life and spills in vain since the revolutionaries soon die or scatter, one by one. Éponine dies and Marius fulfills her last wish to "keep me close" to the end. He gets shot but Valjean rescues him and carries him through the sewers of Paris to safety and to Cosette.

Michael Ball played Marius in the original London cast and Lea Salonga is Éponine.

Section One

Éponine

Don't you fret, M'sieur Marius

I don't feel any pain

A little fall of rain

Can hardly hurt me now

You're here, that's all I need to know

And you will keep me safe

And you will keep me close

And rain will make the flowers grow

Marius

But you will live, 'Ponine - dear God above

If I could heal your wounds with words of love

Éponine

Just hold me now, and let it be

Shelter me, comfort me

Marius

You would live a hundred years

If I could show you how

I won’t desert you now…

Éponine

The rain can't hurt me now

This rain will wash away my past

And you will keep me safe

And you will keep me close

I'll sleep in your embrace at last.

The rain that brings you here

Is Heaven-blessed!

The skies begin to clear

And I'm at rest

A breath away from where you are

I've come home from so far

Section Two

Éponine & Marius

So don't you fret, M'sieur Marius

I don't feel any pain

A little fall of rain

Can hardly hurt me now

That's all I need to know

And you will keep me safe

And you will keep me close

Éponine

And rain

Marius

And rain

Éponine

Will make the flowers

Marius

Will make the flowers… grow

I'll sleep in your embrace at last: This comforting line was apparently excluded in one of the later versions of the production.

"Éponine's Death" from the novel Les Misérables

by Victor Hugo

"You do not know me? Eponine… I am dying. My hand, it is pierced, by a ball. Did you see that musket aimed at you? The hand that stopped it, that was mine. The ball passed through my hand, but it went out through my back. It is useless to take me from here. I will tell you how you can care for me, better then a surgeon. Sit down by me on that stone."

"Oh! How good it is! How kind he is! That is it! I don't suffer any more! Do you know, Monsieur? It worried me that you should go into her garden, it was silly, since it was I who had shown you her house, and then indeed I ought surely to have known that a young man like you-You thought me ugly, didn't you? See, you are lost! Nobody will get out of the barricade, now. It is I who led you to this, it was! You are going to die, I am sure. And still when I saw him aiming at you, I put up my hand upon the muzzle of the musket. How droll it is! But it was because I wanted to die before you. When I got his ball, I dragged myself here, nobody saw me, nobody picked me up. I waited for you, I said: He will not come then? Oh! If you knew, I bit my blouse, I suffered so much. Now I am well. Do you remember the day when I came to your room, and when I looked at myself in the mirror, and the day I met you in the boulevard near some work-woman? How the birds sang! It was not very long ago. You gave me a hundred sous, and I said to you: I don't want your money. Did you pick up your coin? You are not rich; I didn't think to tell you to pick it up. The sun shone bright, I was not cold. Do you

remember, Monsieur? Oh! I am happy! We are all going to die.

Oh! It is coming back! I am stifling!" (raises herself up). "It is he! My brother is here. He must not see me. He would scold me. That little boy, the one who is singing, he is my brother. Oh! Don't go away! It won't be long now! Listen, I don't want to deceive you. I have a letter in my pocket for you. Since yesterday. I was told to put it in the post. I kept it. I didn't want it to reach you. But you would not like it of me perhaps when we meet again so soon. We do meet again, don't we? Take your letter. Take it." "Now, for my pains, promise me---Promise me!

Promise to kiss me on the forehead when I am dead, for I shall feel it. "And then, do you know, Monsieur, I believe I was a little in love with you."

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