La cigale
Language: French (Français)
Available translation(s): ENG
Ô Cigale, née avec les beaux jours,
Sur les verts rameaux dès l'aube posée,
Contente de boire un peu de rosée,
Et telle qu'un roi, tu chantes toujours.
Innocente à tous, paisible et sans ruses,
Le gai laboureur, du chêne abrité,
T'écoute de loin annoncer l'Été
Apollôn t'honore autant que les Muses,
Et Zeus ta donné l'Immortalité!
Salut, sage enfant de la Terre antique,
Dont le chant invite à clore les yeux,
Et qui, sous l'ardeur du soleil Attique,
N'ayant chair ni sang, vis semblable aux Dieux.
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 or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Laura (Pranada) Sylvis) , "The cicada", copyright © 2004, (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: 13
Word count: 87
The cicada
Language: English after the French (Français)
O cicada, born with fine days,
Poised from dawn on the green branches,
Happy to drink a little dew,
And kinglike, you always sing.
Blameless to all, peaceful and without guile,
The happy worker, shaded by the oaktree,
Hears you in the distance heralding summer.
Apollo praises you as highly as the Muses,
And Zeus has given you immortality!
Hail, wise child of ancient earth,
Whose song invites eyes to close,
And who, beneath the intensity of the Attic sun,
Having neither flesh nor blood, live like the Gods.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Laura (Pranada) Sylvis, (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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Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2004-11-02
Line count: 13
Word count: 89