How it saddens me, the cicada's song

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by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Comme il m'attriste, ce chant de cigale

Language: French (Français) after the Chinese (中文)

Our translations: ENG

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:

by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "En prison le poète ècoute une cigale", appears in La flûte de jade, Paris, Éd. H. Piazza, first published 1920 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

a text in Chinese (中文) by Tsao Chang Ling (1719 - 1763) [text unavailable]
- Go to the text page.

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

by Catherine d'Ollone, née Catherine de Pontière (1882 - 1954), "La cigale", published 1928? [ low voice and piano ], from La Flûte de Jade, no. 2, Éd. Maurice Senart (Salabert) [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2026-04-07
Line count: 9
Word count: 56

How it saddens me, the cicada's song

Language: English after the French (Français)

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:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2026 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 Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "En prison le poète ècoute une cigale", appears in La flûte de jade, Paris, Éd. H. Piazza, first published 1920
- Go to the text page.

Based on:

a text in Chinese (中文) by Tsao Chang Ling (1719 - 1763) [text unavailable]
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-04-29
Line count: 9
Word count: 64