The Mysterious Flute | One day, across the leaves and perfumed flowers

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by Judith Gautier (1845 - 1917)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

La flûte mystérieuse

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

Our translations: ENG

Un jour, par-dessus le feuillage et les fleurs embaumées, 
le vent m’apporta le son d’une flûte lointaine.
Alors j’ai coupé une branche de saule et j’ai répondu une chanson.
Depuis, la nuit, lorsque tout dort, 
les oiseaux entendent une conversation dans leur langage.

Confirmed with Judith Walter (Judith Gautier), Le Livre de jade, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1867, pages 149-150.

Note: this is a prose text. The line-breaks have been added arbitrarily.

Text Authorship:

by Judith Gautier (1845 - 1917), "La flûte mystérieuse", appears in Le livre de jade, 1867 edition, in 7. Les poëtes, no. 4, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1867 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762), "春夜洛城闻笛"
- 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 Gabriel-André Fabre (1858 - 1921), "La flûte mystérieuse", 1905?, published 1905 [ medium voice and piano ], from Poèmes de Jade, no. 1, Paris, Éd. Au Ménestrel, Heugel [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "The Mysterious Flute", copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2019-05-05
Line count: 5
Word count: 43

The Mysterious Flute

Language: English after the French (Français)

One day, across the leaves and perfumed flowers,
the wind carried to me the sound of a distant flute.
So I cut a willow branch and answered with a song.
Since then, at night, when all is asleep,
the birds hear a conversation in their own language.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 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 Judith Gautier (1845 - 1917), "La flûte mystérieuse", appears in Le livre de jade, 1867 edition, in 7. Les poëtes, no. 4, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1867
- Go to the text page.

Based on:

a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762), "春夜洛城闻笛"
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-09-16
Line count: 5
Word count: 47