For ABC Wednesday

“D” is for “Dead Leaves”

I know, I know. The title of the song is “Autumn Leaves.” But I wanted to go back to the French original, “Les Feuilles mortes,” or “Dead Leaves” – there’s a nuance of difference as far as meaning is concerned.
The song takes me back a few decades, back to the days when many Americans were fascinated by the work – the poetry and the films – of Jacques Prevert.

Students of the golden age of French cinema are familiar with Prevert's classic motion picture, “Les Enfants du paradis,” which many claim was the greatest French film ever made.


But what brings his work to the minds of some of us old-timers is of course Prevert’s famous song – especially as sung by Edith Piaf or Yves Montand. There were, of course, English versions, but I’ll stick with the original.


“C’est une chanson qui nous ressemble,
Toi, tu m’aimais et je t’aimais.”
It’s a song that resembles the two of us,
You who loved me and I who loved you.
“Et nous vivions tous deux ensemble,
Toi qui m’aimais, moi qui t’aimais.”
And the two of us lived together,
You who loved me and I who loved you.
“Mais la vie separe ceux qui s’aiment,
Tout doucement, sans faire de bruit.
Et la mer efface sur le sable
Les pas des amants desunis.”
But life separates those who love,
Softly, making no noise.
And the sea erases on the sand
The footprints of lovers who are no longer together.