For my father.

Cade una foglia   Grazia Deledda   Cade una foglia che pare tinta di sole, che nel cadere ha l’iridescenza di una farfalla; ma appena giunta a terra si confonde con l’ombra, già morta.

There falls a leaf   Grazia Deledda   There falls a leaf which seems tinged with sun, which in falling has the iridescence of a butterfly; but as it reaches the ground is lost in the shade, by now gone.   Translation ©Matilda Colarossi 2024

In literature, the falling of leaves is often associated with death, for example, in Homer, Mimnermos, Aristophanes, Virgil, and Dante. This tradition has continued, and we also find examples in Arturo Graf, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Giovanni Pascoli, Diego Valeri (to name but a few). It is something which has always intrigued me, something I always promise myself I will study further but which I never seem to get around to.

Personally, I love leaves, fallen or not. I love walking on the leaf-covered ground. I love leaves when they lie dry and crisp, and I love them when they lie in a mushy humus mess. I love them lying on the ground in hues of red and orange, like at home in Canada, and in hues of green and yellow, like here in Tuscany. They represent, for me, always, new life, for they nourish the soil. This is the spirit with which I would like to dedicate this poem to my father (February 18, 1927 – January 5, 2022), calling attention to the hues of sun and the iridescence of a butterfly.

In any case, I have prepared a few examples of how the falling of leaves is presented in literature to accompany this brief poem:

“Great-souled son of Tydeus, wherefore inquirest thou of my lineage? Even as are the generations of leaves, such are those also of men. As for the leaves, the wind scattereth some upon the earth, but the forest, as it bourgeons, putteth forth others when the season of spring is come; even so of men one generation springeth up and another passeth away.” Homer, Iliad, Book VI

“But we, like the leaves that come in the flowery Springtime when they wax so quickly beneath the sunbeams, like them we enjoy the blossoms of youth for a season but an ell long…” Mimnermus, Elegy and Lambus, Volume I.

“Weak mortals, chained to the earth, creatures of clay as frail as the foliage of the woods…” Aristophanes, Birds, line 685.

“And youths, intomb’d before their fathers’ eyes, / With hollow groans, and shrieks, and feeble cries. / Thick as the leaves in autumn strow the woods…” Virgil, The Aeneid, Book VI.

 “As in autumn the leaves drop off one after the other till the branch sees all its spoils on the ground, so the wicked seed of Adam fling themselves from that shore one by one …” Dante, The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno.

“Pale, light, inanimate remains, / Which you, great mother, back to your womb call, / From the grand heights, from the boughs / One by one plummet the leaves.” Arturo Graf, Ultime foglie, “Morgana”, 1901.

“Silence all around: alone, in the winds, / you hear in the distance, from the orchards and gardens, / a fragile falling of leaves. It’s the cold, / summer, of the dead.” Giovanni Pascoli, Novembre, Myricae (1891-1911)

“We are as / in autumn / on branches / the leaves.” Giuseppe Ungaretti, Soldati, “La raccolta”, 1918. https://paralleltexts.blog/2017/02/11/soldatisoldier-by-giuseppe-ungaretti/

Sources:

Homer. The Iliad, translated by A.T. Murray. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.

Mimnermus. Elegy and Iambus, translated by J. M. Edmonds. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1931.

Aristophanes. Birds. The Complete Greek Drama, vol. 2. Translated by Eugene O’Neill, Jr. New York. Random House. 1938.

Virgil’s Aeneid, translated by John Dryden New York. P.F. Collier and Son. 1909.

The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno, Dante Alighieri, translated by John D. Sinclair, New York. Oxford University Press, 1961 ·

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