Avoir le cafard — l'expression française de la mélancolie
Depuis la fin des vacances, j'ai vraiment le cafard — tout me pèse et je n'arrive pas à me remettre dans le bain.
Since the end of the holidays, I've really been feeling down — everything weighs on me and I can't get back into the swing of things.
Cultural Context
The expression avoir le cafard (to have the cockroach) means to feel melancholic or gloomy. It was popularized by poet Charles Baudelaire, whose Les Fleurs du Mal (1857) featured the cockroach as a symbol of depression. Today it is part of everyday French speech and captures a distinctly French sense of existential melancholy.
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