by
Maurice Fauré (1850 - 1919)
La mort de la cigale
Language: French (Français)
Quand les blonds épis mûrs ondoyant dans la plaine
S'inclinent accablés sous le grand ciel dormant
Et semblent annoncer qu'elle n'est plus lointaine
L'heure où ruisselleront les flots d'or du froment,
Comme des condamnés, offrant leur tête pleine
De l'espoir des hivers, un seul enchantement
Les berce dans l'oubli de la moisson prochaine.
Le blé qui va mourir écoute vaguement
La cigale entonnant ses notes frémissantes.
Voici les moissonneurs! Leurs faucilles grinçantes
Abattant les épis découronnent l'été
Et fidèle au destin des blés, triste, muette,
La cigale s'endort, comme meurt un poète,
Lasse d'avoir vécu, fière d'avoir chanté!
Text Authorship:
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, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , title 1: "Death of the Cicada", 2004, copyright © 2004 by Faith J. Cormier, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 98
Death of the Cicada
Language: English after the French (Français)
When the ripe blonde stalks wave on the plain,
bending heavily under the wide sleeping sky,
and seem to say that the time is near
when the golden streams of wheat will flow,
like condemned prisoners, offering their heads full
of winter's hope, rocked in enchantment,
forgetful of the coming harvest.
The wheat that is to die listens vaguely
to the cicada's quavering song.
Here come the reapers! Their screeching scythes
cut down the stalks and uncrown summer.
Faithfully sharing the fate of the wheat, sad, mute,
the cicada falls asleep as a poet will die,
tired of living but proud of having sung!
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Faith J. Cormier; translation by Faith J. Cormier, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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This text was added to the website:
Line count: 14
Word count: 104
