I have been overcome with pity | I have been overcome with pity, with loving, and with smiling

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by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Je crève de pitié

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Je crève de pitié, d'aimer et de sourire : 
mais, sourire, ne m'est pas toujours possible,

et ce petit chat m'a rempli d'une tristesse grise.
Il miaulait sous la grande porte de la mairie,

par ce soir pluvieux, boueux, et j'ai senti
toute l'infinité résignée et muette

de la douleur des bêtes, de la douleur des bêtes.
Mon Dieu : qu'allait-il faire ? Qu'allait-il faire ?

Son malheur est si triste sous la pluie.
Qui va le nourrir ? Qui va le nourrir ?

Oh ! s'il allait, en tremblotant, là, mourir,
— ou devenir un triste chat des saligues

qui crève, dans la boue malsaine, de famine,
de grelottement, de croûtes et de fièvre

— ou être tué par un chien qui le prend pour un lièvre.

Confirmed with Francis Jammes, De l'Angelus de l'aube à l'Angelus du soir, Paris: Mercure de France, 1907, Pages 150-151.

Text Authorship:

by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938), "Je crève de pitié...", appears in De l'Angélus de l'aube à l'Angélus du soir [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974), "Je crève de pitié", op. 1 (Poèmes de Francis Jammes), Heft 1 no. 8 (1910-1912) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "I have been overcome with pity", copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2025-05-30
Line count: 15
Word count: 121

I have been overcome with pity

Language: English after the French (Français)

I have been overcome with pity, with loving, and with smiling:
But smiling — that I'm not always able to do,

and this little cat has filled me with a gray sadness.
It was meowing at the front door of the town hall,

through this rainy, muddy evening, and I felt
all the resigned and mute infinity

of the suffering of beasts, the suffering of beasts.
My God: what was it to do? What was it to do?

Its misfortune is so sad in the rain.
Who is going to feed it? Who is going to feed it?

Oh! if it should die there, trembling,
— or become a sad cat of the swamps

overcome, in the noxious mud, by starvation,
by shivering, by scabs and by fever

— or be killed by a dog who takes it for a hare.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938), "Je crève de pitié...", appears in De l'Angélus de l'aube à l'Angélus du soir
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-06-09
Line count: 15
Word count: 141