Serious request! I heard a folk song -- maybe oriental originally, it was very wistful -- a long time ago, with the lines:

"Oh, love has gone, but I cannot let you go,

This song that cannot bear its own sound

brings oh brings the grief it sings --

Oh song, what are you?

Oh singing, why is there singing?"

I suspect it comes originally from a poem. It is, of course, a fine thing. Can anyone give me a lead? Yours, Peter