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Puisque la vie est décevante comme un rêve, pourquoi se tourmenter ? Je préfère m'enivrer jusqu'à tomber. C'est ce que j'ai encore fait, hier. A mon réveil, j'ai regardé autour de moi. Un oiseau gazouillait parmi les fleurs. Je l'ai prié de me renseigner sur la saison, et il m'a répondu que nous étions à l'époque où le printemps fait chanter les oiseaux. Comme j'étais près de m'attendrir, je me suis encore versé à boire, j'ai chanté jusqu'au lever de la lune, et j'ai, de nouveau, perdu la notion des choses.
Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade : poésies chinoises, Paris: H. Piazza, 1920, pages 103-104.
Text Authorship:
- by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Un jour de printemps", subtitle: "Le poète écrit quelques vers à la louange de l'ivresse", appears in La flûte de jade [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762), "春日醉起言志"
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Marie Marjori Hajary (1921 - 2017), "Un Jour de Printemps", 1950 [ voice, 2 flutes, viola and violoncello ], from Flûte de jade, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "A Spring Day", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2026-04-25
Line count: 13
Word count: 90
Since life is as deceitful as a dream, why torture yourself? I'd rather get falling-down drunk. That 's what I did again, yesterday. When I came to, I looked all around me A bird was chattering among the flowers. I begged him to tell me the season, and he answered that it was the time when Spring makes the birds sing. As I was moved nearly to tears, I poured myself another drink, I sang until the moon rose, and I once more lost track of things.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2026 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.
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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Un jour de printemps", subtitle: "Le poète écrit quelques vers à la louange de l'ivresse", appears in La flûte de jade
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762), "春日醉起言志"
This text was added to the website: 2026-04-25
Line count: 13
Word count: 87