Chant de l’Automne

Beneath the cypress, in the solemn wood, I dared to whisper to your shade, forlorn. As leafy breezes ruffled all the greenery, I mourn like a lost sparrow at fading dawn. . For with every falling leaf, O Nature, Each stifled cadences the world still speaks, You sing back sweet and sad as death, Lovelier than the hum of sadness your music reeks.

• Charles Baudelaire