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Comme il m'attriste, ce chant de cigale qui vibre là-bas ! Je vois ce frêle insecte. Accablé de rosée, il ne peut s'envoler, et il chante. Ainsi, mon âme, lourde de chagrin, est incapable de s'élever jusqu'aux sommets que n'atteignent pas les flèches des perfides. Dans la tempête qui m'a renversé, j'écris, en pleurant, des poésies sereines.
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade : poésies chinoises, Paris: H. Piazza, 1920, pages 100-101.
Text Authorship:
Based on:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
This text was added to the website: 2026-04-07
Line count: 9
Word count: 56
How it saddens me, the cicada's song humming out there! I see that frail insect. Weighed down by the dew, he cannot take flight, and he sings. Thus my soul, heavy with sorrow, cannot raise itself to the heights where the arrows of the treacherous do not reach. In the tempest that has overwhelmed me, I write serene verses, though I am in tears.
About the headline (FAQ)
Translations of titles:
"En prison le poète ècoute une cigale" = "In Prison the Poet Listens to a Cicada"
"La cigale" = "The Cicada"
Text Authorship:
Based on:
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2026-04-29
Line count: 9
Word count: 64
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