Edith Piaf - Autumn Leaves (Les Feuilles Mortes)

The falling leaves
Drift by the window
The autumn leaves
All 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 songs
But I miss you most of all
My darling, when autumn leaves start to fall...

C'est une chanson
Qui nous ressemble
Toi qui m'aimais
Et je t'aimais
Nous vivions tous les deux ensemble
Tou qui m'aimais
Moi qui t'aimais

Mais la vie sépare
Ceux qui s'aiment
Tout doucement
Sans faire de bruit
Et la mer efface sur le sable
Les pas des amants désunis.

Since you went away
The days grow long...
And soon I'll hear
Old winter songs
But I miss you most of all
My darling, when autumn leaves start to fall...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Edith
• Piaf
• Autumn
• Leaves
• Les
• Feuilles
• Mortes
• song
• french
• english
• love

[hardyfh1]

I try to make it a policy not to join in the endless, pointless debates as to which song or singer is better than another, but I do have to say that on this, my all time favourite song, the French versions by Greco, Montand and Piaf are in a class of their own. The lyrical approach of chanson brings out the true depth and meaning of this song, whereas English speaking versions - many brilliantly sung - gloss over the loss and melancholy. The French singers have the poetry and gravitas.

[44mkb]

This grand lady's songs will always be a class act,

[hardyfh1]

@TheConsumerman Eva Cassidy does indeed do this song well, plaintive and poignant. I really feel as though I want to listen to it. I'm feeling quite sad today.

[hardyfh1]

@Sharsie I like Eva Cassidy's version. Strangely enough, the ethereal quality of her interpretation reminds me of some of the mellifluous, soft voiced French singers of the sixties.

Really, I didn't intend to start a war between rival camps. I can appreciate the different qualities of all the best versions, of which Eva Cassidy's is one. My point is simply that French chanson is text based; the lyric is declaimed and hence it sounds more poetic than when sung in the English style.

[hardyfh1]

@vja65 I have indeed. I like to hear the many different versions of this song and I like artists who can can reveal the melancholy of the lyric and the melody in their own way. Eva Cassiday's version is ethereal, soft and spectral and I like it. I'm not going to draw up a league table and start ranking all the versions in order, mind. Where would you place Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Sinatra... ? I used to have a 90 min tape with all my favourite versions on - Eva Cassidy is on there.

[vja65]

@vja65 granted it is not of the same generation...different troubles and travails :)

[vja65]

@hardyfh1 and you have heard eva cassidy's version?

[TheConsumerman]

@hardyfh1 Eva Cassidy really does this song well.  This version is very good too.

[briksization]

@Sharsie It was Eva Cassidy that brought me here... I always get goose bumps when I hear Eva singing it!!! Haven't tired of listening to it in the past 10 years.

[adar5708]

@eatablealan You are so right, WHO can bring a soul into the concrete world these days?

[tapdansa]

yeah, sounds far better in french

[fiop789]

what a voice...i cant even....wao ♥