（火） Strange Fruit

Listen to "Strange Fruit."

Southern trees bear strange fruit　
（南部の木々には奇妙な果実があるという）
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root　
（葉には血潮　根には血だまり）
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze　
（そして黒い体が南部のそよ風に揺られている）
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.　
（ポプラの木々に吊るされるのは奇妙な果実）
Pastoral scene of the gallant south　
（古きよき実り豊かな南部の田園風景に）
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth　
（ふくれた目とゆがんだ口）
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
（甘く香る南部の心の花マグノリア）
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.　
（突如こげた肉のにおいが割り込んで）
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck　
（やがてカラスがついばめ）
For the rain to gather for the wind to suck　
（雨に朽ち　風に翻弄され）
For the sun to rot for the trees to drop　
（陽に腐り　枝から落ちて地に戻る）
Here is a strange and bitter crop.　
（そうこれが南部の奇妙な果実　苦々しく凄惨な南部の産物）

In the lyrics, black victims of lynching are called "strange fruit" sarcastically. White people lynched black people. The lyrics explain that miserable sight.

Why did Abel Meeropol write these lyrics?

Meeropol saw a photo of two black men butchered in a newspaper and was so shocked that he first wrote a poem called "Bitter Fruit." Here is the picture he saw:



He wanted everyone to know about racism against black people. He wrote the lyrics based on what he saw in the picture so the lyrics had a strong impact and became famous as days went by.

Reference.

In my opinion, the lyrics are very honest, so I feel a kind of darkness when I hear the song. Contrasting the pastoral landscape of the South, the lyrics portray lynching powerfully. Even if the listener had known nothing about lynching, they could imagine how horrible it was. I think the song should never be forgotten.

Nozomi Maehara

What is lynching?

Lynching was named after Charles Lynch, because he was a severe judge. Lynching is a kind of violence. It can be defined as "the practice whereby a mob--usually several dozen or several hundred persons--takes the law into its own hands in order to injure and kill a person accused of some wrongdoing (reference). In other words, lynching is a crime.

Many African-Americans were killed by whites. The victims were African-American slaves and also, in some cases, whites who protested lynching.

The lynchers included a number of the members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). The KKK was established in 1867. They wanted whites to be superior to blacks. Therefore, they killed many African-Americans. Here is a picture of a Ku Klux Klan meeting.



Between 1880 and 1920, an average of two African-Americans a week were lynched in the United States.

Whites didn't kill African-Americans without any reason, but the reasons were often weak. For example, African Americans were killed for shoplifting or drunkenness.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) fought for a long time against lynching. In 1919, it published a report, "Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States: 1889-1918."

Here is a slide show of lynching photographs.

I knew there were discriminations against blacks, but I didn't know such horrible action. When I heard this song for the first time, I didn't understand what the lyrics mean, especially "Strange Fruit". But when I understood the lyrics, it gave me horrors. I think I'll not be able to forget lynching and the song.

Shiori Maeda

Who was the songwriter?

Abel Meeropol, whose parents were Russian immigrants, was a Jewish high school teacher in New York City. He was also a communist. He wrote both the music and lyrics to “Strange Fruit.” His name was also famous because he adopted two sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were killed by the United State government for suspected spying.

In the 1930s, blacks were frequently lynched by whites. The Communist Party opposed this and wanted other to realize how terrible it was; so the communists were also the target of lynching. Abel Meeropol wrote the song and published it in a union magazine and a communist cultural journal. His wife, Anne, sang it at a New York teacher's union meeting and at Communist Party functions. Later, it was made popular by Billie Holiday and became the anthem of the anti-lynching movemet. According to a Public Broadcasting Web site that discusses a movie about the song, "The song made it impossible for white Americans and politicians to continue to ignore the Southern campaign of racist terror. " In other words, the song was so powerful that it influenced white Americans and politicians.

The song was slow, the voice low, and the words were very cruel, so I felt only sad and scared. I usually listen to pop music which makes me happy, so I couldn't believe this was a kind of music. When I learned this song was about lynching, I understood that the 'strange fruit' was blacks. The melody and words describe the fear of lynching.　

Sayuri Kiyofuji　　

Billie Holiday (1915~1959)

She was a black Jazz singer in the United States. She was one of the most famous Jazz singers. She struggled hard against discrimination, drugs, and alcoholism all her life. However, people who listened her music was impressed with her emotional singing and she influenced many musician. Her masterpieces -- "Strange Fruit," "God Bless the Child," "I Love You, Porgy," "Fine and Mellow" -- are Jazz vocal classic for many singers now.

How did “Strange Fruit” come to be famous?

　In those days, the killing of blacks was a frequent occurrence. Holiday sang the song at the end of her performances in spite of the danger that black women faced for speaking out against racial discrimination. Because her father died of pneumonia without accepting to enter hospital because he is black, she thought strongly that she must continue to sing the song. Soon, her name and “Strange Fruit” became more and more famous all over the world. At last, she was interviewed for Time Magazine and for the first time pictures of blacks appeared in the magazine. “Strange Fruit” was highy acclaimed (賞賛された) by highbrows and made her famous all over the world. Now, “Strange Fruit” in still used as a sort of campaign song against violence towards blacks.

I listened to "Strange Fruit" as sung by Billie Holiday. The introduction is gloomy and very long, and the melody is heavy and dark. This makes me feel down. And the lyrics are cruel. The fruit is destroyed by crows, the rain, and the sun. Lewis Allan used the word "fruit" figuratively because he wanted to express his rejection of discrimination. Upon listening to and researching the song, I thought that we should think more about racial discrimination.

Reference (参考文献)

Yuka Kidoguchi