This is a 1921 Music-Hall song from the French singer-songwriter Maurice Chevalier.
However, Chevalier only popularised this song, which was written by Albert Willemetz and composed by Henri Christiné for Dédé, an operetta.
The song is a carefree piece of advice to put things in perspective. And that nothing in life if worth worrying about.
It tells the story of a young man who realises he is broke while coming out of the casino.
He has spent the last pennies from his auntie’s will.
Whilst many would feel suicidal, his advice is to stop worrying and take life as it comes.
His father’s solicitors call him as the young man’s father learnt of his exuberant and carefree lifestyle. As there are no further relatives the young man can inherit from, the father will provide him with a small pension, and the solicitor’s advice is to seek work.
The young man replies that seeking employment is a ludicrous idea, as he would feel he is stealing bread from hard-working blue-collar workers.
Placing the lyrics in context, the song was written shortly after the First World War, and people were frenzied by a desire to forget.
It also satirises the Bohemian Bourgeois movement of the 1920’s. The dandies who live a carefree life, with a rebellious and anti-establishment spirit. They often refused to follow conventional career paths and rejected bourgeois values of fitting in within social standing.
Bohemians have always prioritised living in the now over future security.
The song also uses humour as a form of resistance. Using serious subjects such as suicide and losing one’s inheritance against the carefree spirit of the narrator.
En sortant du trente et quarante
Je ne possédais plus un radis
De l’héritage de ma tante
Tout autre que moi
se serait dit
Je vais me faire sauter la cervelle
Me suicider d’un coup de couteau
M’empoisonner me fiche à l’eau
Enfin des morts bien naturelles
Mais voulant finir en beauté
Je me suis tué à répéter :
Dans la vie faut pas s’en faire
Moi je ne m’en fais pas
Toutes ces petites misères
Seront passagères
Tout ça s’arrangera
Je n’ai pas un caractère
A me faire du tracas
Croyez-moi sur terre
Faut jamais s’en faire
Moi je ne m’en fais pas
Je rentre à Paris
mais mon notaire
M’annonce : votre père plein d’attention
Vous colle un conseil judiciaire
Et vingt-cinq louis par mois de pension
Et comme je ne vois plus personne
Dont vous puissiez être héritier
Faut travailler prendre un métier
C’est le conseil que je vous donne
Je lui dis comment ?
Vous voudriez que je vole
le pain d’un ouvrier
Dans la vie faut pas s’en faire
Moi je ne m’en fais pas
Ces petites misères
Seront passagères
Tout ça s’arrangera
Je n’ai pas un caractère
A me faire du tracas
Croyez-moi sur terre
Faut jamais s’en faire
Moi je ne m’en fais pas
Je n’ai pas un caractère
A me faire du tracas
Croyez-moi sur terre
Faut jamais s’en faire
Moi je ne m’en fais pas
Getting off the 30 and 40,
I didn’t have a bean left
of my aunt’s inheritance.
Someone other than me
would have thought …
I’m going to blow my brains out,
kill myself with a knife,
poison myself, jump in the water
Well, any natural deaths.
As I wanted to end it beautifully
I killed myself repeating.
Life is not worth worrying about.
I don’t sweat the small stuff
These little miseries
will be transient
It will all work out
I don’t have a personality
to worry myself
Believe me, on this earth
You should never worry
I don’t sweat the small stuff
I returned to Paris
But my solicitor
told me that my father, worrying about me
took over my guardianship
And gives me 25 francs per month as a pension, eh.
He adds I can’t see anyone else
You could inherit from
Gotta work, take a job,
That’s the advice I give you.
I replied, “How
would you like me to steal
the bread of an honest blue-collar worker ?”
Life is not worth worrying about
I don’t sweat the small stuff
These little miseries
will be transient,
It will all work out.
I don’t have a personality
to worry myself
Believe me on earth,
Life is not worth worrying about.
I don’t care.
I don’t have a personality.
to sweat the small stuff
Believe me, on this earth,
Life is not worth worrying about
I don’t sweat the small stuff
Between the French lyrics 
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