Berowne's 290

(Also for ABC Wednesday: "O" is for "overwhelming")

No quiz this week.

An amazing thing happened a few days ago.  A theatrical company – primarily a dance group, I guess  - started to perform right outside my window.

What a show!  What pirouettes and jetees, what whirling about!

But then I realized, it’s October.  Some stagehand had thrown a switch and the nearby trees suddenly filled the autumnal air with falling, dancing leaves.  It really needed some background music, something overwhelmingly classical.

This took me back a few decades, back to the days when American francophiles were fascinated by the work – the poetry and the films – of Jacques Prevert.

Of course, speaking of music, I thought of his song “Les Feuilles mortes” – “Autumn Leaves” – especially as sung by Edith Piaf and Yves Montand.

Prevert’s poetry holds up well today and is perfect for an October day.

“C’est une chanson qui nous ressemble,
Toi, tu m’aimais et je t’aimais.”

It’s a song that’s like the two of us,
You, 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.

                                  Jacques Prevert, 1900-1977