Scarlett

Yesterday I went for a walk in Limpsfield Chart with bigblue, and we took some autumny pictures. It was quite cool, because after I’d take a picture, it would then appear on the screen with a golden glow - very appropriate. Anyway, I had the song ‘Autumn Leaves’ in my head. I learned it on the saxaphone about four years ago (doesn’t time fly!), and with it all about II-V-I progressions, but I found out recently that the song has words:

The falling leaves
Drift by the window
The autumn leaves
Of red and gold

I see your lips
The summer kisses
The sun-burned hands
I used to hold

Since you went away
The days go long
And soon I hear
Old winter song

But I miss you most of all
My darling
When autumn leaves
Start to fall

So many musicians have played (and, indeed, I see now, sung) this song, and I didn’t realise that the words were originally French, from the poem ‘Les Feuilles Mortes’ (literally ‘the dead leaves - somehow not the same!) by Jaques Pr�vert. For those of you who are interested, the English lyrics were written in 1949.

Oh! Je voudrais tant que tu te souviennes,
Des jours heureux o� nous �tions amis,
En ce temps-l�, la vie �tait plus belle,
Et le soleil plus br�lant qu’aujourd�hui.

Les feuilles mortes se ramassent � la pelle,
Tu vois, je n’ai pas oubli�.

Les feuilles mortes se ramassent � la pelle,
Les souvenirs et les regrets aussi.

Et le vent du Nord les emporte,
Dans la nuit froide de l’oubli.
Tu vois, je n’ai pas oubli�
La chanson que tu me chantais…

C’est une chanson qui nous ressemble,
Toi qui m’aimais, moi qui t’aimais.
Nous vivions tous les deux ensemble,
Toi qui m’aimais, moi qui t’aimais.

Mais la vie s�pare ceux qui s’aiment,
Tout doucement sans faire de bruit.

Et la mer efface sur le sable,
Les pas des amants d�sunis.

It was a good walk yesterday afternoon, and thanks for sharing the words of the song with us.