[Des jeunes filles cueillent des nénuphars
sur les bords du Jo-Yeh.]1
Parmi les bambous, elles s'interpellent
et se cachent en riant.
L'eau réfléchit leurs belles robes,
qui parfument la brise.

Des cavaliers passent entre les saules de la rive...
Un des chevaux hennit.
Son maître regarde en vain de tous [côtés
et puis]2 s'éloigne.
[Une]3 des jeunes filles
laisse tomber ses nénuphars et comprime son cœur
qui bat à grands coups.

About the headline (FAQ)

View text without footnotes

Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade : poésies chinoises, Paris: H. Piazza, 1920, page 70.

¹ Badings: "Sur les bords du Jo-Yeh,/ des jeunes filles cueillent des nénuphars."; Wertheim: "Des jeunes filles cueillent des nénuphars/ sur les bords du Jo-Jeh"
² Wertheim: "côtés - puis"
³ Badings: "Sur les bords du Jo-Yeh une"

Text Authorship:

• by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Sur les bords du Jo-Yeh", 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 Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762), "采莲曲"
  • 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 Henk Badings (1907 - 1987), "Sur les bords du Jo-Yeh", from Chansons orientales, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Rosalie Marie Wertheim (1888 - 1949), "Sur les bords du Jo-Jeh", 1939 [ soprano, flute and harp or piano ], from Trois Chansons pour soprano, flûte et harpe, no. 3, confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]

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

• ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "On the Banks of the Jo-Yeh", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "An den Ufern des Jo-yeh", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-06
Line count: 13
Word count: 74

[Girls are gathering water lilies
on the banks of the Jo-Yeh.]1
Amidst the bamboo, they call out to each other 
and playfully conceal themselves.
The water reflects their beautiful robes,
which perfume the breeze.

Horsemen ride by beneath the willows of the riverbank ...
One of the horses whinnies.
Its master looks all around in vain
and then moves off.
[One]2 of the girls 
drops her lilies and presses her hand to her heart,
which is pounding.