Music by Alexander Dobin
        Lyrics by Rasul Gamzatov

Gentle showers drip, drop
From the branches bare.
Yellow leaves flip-flop
Here and everywhere.

Lusty, gusty Autumn
Drives them down the street,
Unbeloved orphans,
Beating a retreat.

People passing mutely
Trample in the mire
Flimsy leaves whose beauty
Once they did admire.

Trees, of course, create
New foliage in Spring.
Still, the law of Nature
Seems a cruel thing.

1977, Moscow