Patrick Comerford
The Autumn colours are to be seen all around me this week.
The green and golden field beside the Rectory in Askeaton show the signs of a second cutting of grass this autumn, the blackberries are ripening in clusters on the brambles against the walls behind the Rectory garden, and there is a last burst of red autumn roses outside the rectory kitchen.
There was a time when I felt morose about autumn, the loss of summer sunshine and the impending arrival of winter, with its late mornings, early evenings, the cold, the frost and the snow.
I need direct sunlight, and often work at the kitchen or dining room table, looking out onto the rectory garden, and for these past few days the rectory garden has been filled with the hues of autumn leaves, so that I know now that the colours of autumn have their own beauty.
The song ‘Autumn Leaves’ was originally written in 1945 as the French song ‘Les Feuilles mortes’ (‘The Dead Leaves’), with music by the Hungarian-French composer Joseph Kosma and lyrics by the French poet Jacques Prévert that evoke images of the dead leaves falling in autumn.
The Italian-born French singer Yves Montand introduced the song ‘Les Feuilles Mortes,’ with its heart-breaking lyrics in Marcel Carné’s film Les Portes De La Nuit (1946), a gloomy urban drama set in Paris in the immediate aftermath of World War II.
The film was a commercial failure, but it was one of the many films that inspired French ‘poetic realism,’ a genre that in turn inspired the American film noir movement.
The American songwriter Johnny Mercer wrote English lyrics for the tune in 1949, changing the original French title to ‘Autumn Leaves.’ Mercer’s words are not a translation of Prévert’s poem, but he uses a similar image of dead leaves to describe memories of love.
This song was first recorded by Jo Stafford, and Édith Piaf sang ‘Les Feuilles Mortes’ with an English verse in 1950 on The Big Show. Later versions were recorded by Bing Crosby, Artie Shaw and Paul Weston.
Mercer’s song became a hit for Nat King Cole in 1956, and inspired the title of the film Autumn Leaves (1956), starring Joan Crawford and Cliff Robertson. The film tells the story of a woman who marries a younger man with psychiatric problems brought on by his former wife’s affair with his father.
However, the title Autumn Leaves has no apparent connection with the storyline, other than sharing a vague melancholic tone. The film’s original title was The Way We Are, but this was changed to Autumn Leaves to capitalise on the success of the song ‘Autumn Leaves,’ which Nat King Cole sings over the film’s title sequence.
The song ‘Feuilles Mortes’ was also referred to by Ian Fleming that year in his James Bond novel Diamonds are Forever (1956).
The song has been a favourite among jazz musicians, including Miles Davis, and has been recorded by many artists, including Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and – most poignantly, shortly before her death – Eva Cassidy.
The lyrics by Prévert (‘the north wind takes them / into the cold night of oblivion’) and Mercer (and ‘soon I’ll hear old winter’s song’) stoically accept the end of love, the end of autumn, and the end of life.
But, while Autumn may turn to Winter in the weeks to come, winter brings its own beauty and blessings, and it is followed by the sunshine of spring and summer.
I went for a walk through the fields beside the rectory to take in those autumn colours yesterday. Meanwhile, the blackberries are ripening along the garden wall and must be picked before Saturday, Saint Michael’s Day [29 September], according to Irish tradition.
The red leaves are already beginning to fall from the autumn roses, meaning the dead heads need to be trimmed soon so the spring roses can grow fully.
The falling leaves drift by my window
The falling leaves of red and gold
I see your lips the summer kisses
The sunburned hands I used to hold
Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I’ll hear old winter’s song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall
Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I’ll hear old winter’s song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall
I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall.
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