The Jade Flute

Translations © by Grant Hicks

Song Cycle by Eugeniusz Knapik (b. 1951)

View original-language texts alone: La flûte de jade

1. Le pavillon de la musique  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: French (Français) 
Les musiciennes sont parties.
Tulipes qu'elles avaient mises dans les vases de jade
s'inclinent vers les luths et semblent écouter encore.

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Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade; poésies chinoises, Piazza, 1926, p. 24.


by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)
1. The Music Pavilion
Language: English 
The musicians have gone away. 
Tulips that they had placed in vases of jade
bend towards the lutes and seem to listening still.

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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This text was added to the website: 2026-04-17
Line count: 3
Word count: 23

Translation © by Grant Hicks
2. La flûte de jade  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: French (Français) 
Si j'étais un arbre ou une plante,
je sentirais la douce influence du printemps.
Je suis un homme...
Ne vous étonnez pas de ma joie.

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Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade : poésies chinoises, Paris: H. Piazza, 1920, page 61.


by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)
2. The Jade Flute
Language: English 
If I were a tree or a plant, 
I'd feel the sweet influence of Spring. 
I am a man... 
Do not be surprised at my joy.

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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Translations of titles:
"La flûte de jade" = "The Jade Flute"
"Le renouveau" = "Renewal"


This text was added to the website: 2026-04-30
Line count: 4
Word count: 26

Translation © by Grant Hicks
3. L'adieu  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: French (Français) 
L’oiseau yüann et l’oiseau yang
nagent côte à côte sur le fleuve Kinn
dont les flots onduleux coulent vers le nord.
Quand l’oiseau yüann s’arrête à l’ombre d’un arbre de la rive,
sa compagne s’arrête parmi les roseaux en fleurs.
Tous deux préféreraient la mort ou la captivité plutôt que la fuite,
si, pour fuir, ils devaient se séparer.

Adieu, seigneur de ma vie !
Aucune fleuve ne peut revenir à sa source,
aucune rose ne peut revenir sur le rosier qui l’a laissé tomber.

Malgré la croyance générale, les plantes ne sont pas insensibles.
Qu’advient-il à celles dont la nature est de s’attacher ?
L’une vit et meurt à l’endroit même
où le vent laissa tomber la graine
qui lui donna le jour ;
l’autre périt dès qu’on l’arrache de l’abri qu’elle avait choisi.
La nature est clémente pour la fleur,
et l’homme est cruel pour la femme qui l’aime.

Adieu, seigneur de ma vie !
Aucun fleuve ne peut revenir à sa source,
aucune rose ne peut revenir sur le rosier qui l’a laissé tomber.

En souvenir de moi, gardez ces trois hirondelles de jade.
Elles brillaient dans ma chevelure, le jour de notre mariage.
Essuyez-les, chaque soir, avec votre manche de soie.
Et ne roulez jamais la natte sur laquelle vous m’avez caressée …
Laissez les araignées y tendre leurs fils.
Permettez-moi de vous demander
de conserver toujours le bloc d’ambre
sur lequel je posais ma tête, pour dormir.
Les rêves qu’il vous donnera vous rappelleront notre passé.

Adieu, seigneur de ma vie !
Aucun fleuve ne peut revenir à sa source,
aucune rose ne peut revenir sur le rosier qui l’a laissé tomber.

J’ai oublié, dans votre coffre sculpté, mon petit manteau de plumes.
Ne le mettez jamais sur d’autres épaules que les vôtres.
Quant à mon miroir, mon miroir d’argent
où mon cœur se reflétait comme un visage au fond d’un puits,
tendez-le souvent à votre nouvelle épouse,
et qu’il vous aide à connaître son cœur.

Adieu, seigneur de ma vie !
Aucun fleuve ne peut revenir à sa source,
aucune rose ne peut revenir sur le rosier qui l’a laissé tomber.

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Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade : poésies chinoises, Paris: H. Piazza, 1926, pages 17-20.


by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)
3. The Farewell
Language: English 
The yüan bird and the yang bird
swim side by side on the river Kin
whose rippling  currents flow towards the North.
When the yüan bird stops in the shade of a tree on the bank,
her companion stops amidst the flowering reeds.
Both would rather die or be captured than flee,
if, in order to flee, they had to part.

Farewell, lord of my life!
No river can return to its source,
no rose can return to the bush from which it has fallen.

Contrary to popular belief, plants are not without feeling.
What happens to those whose nature it is to become attached?
One lives and dies in the same spot
where the wind dropped the seed
that gave it being;
the other perishes as soon as it is pulled up from the shelter it had chosen.
Nature is kind to the flower,
and man is cruel to the woman who loves him.

Farewell, lord of my life!
No river can return to its source,
no rose can return to the bush from which it has fallen.

In memory of me, keep those three jade swallows.
They gleamed in my hair on our wedding day.
Rub them every evening with your silken sleeve.
And never roll up the matting on which you caressed me...
Let the spiders spin their threads there.
Allow me to ask you 
to keep forever the block of amber
on which I laid my head to sleep.
The dreams they will give you will remind you of our past.

Farewell, lord of my life!
No river can return to its source,
no rose can return to the bush from which it has fallen.

I forgot, in your carved chest, my little cloak of feathers.
Never put it on any shoulders but your own.
As for my mirror, my silver mirror 
where my heart was reflected like a face at the bottom of a well,
offer it often to your new bride,
and may it help you to know her heart.
 
Farewell, lord of my life!
No river can return to its source,
no rose can return to the bush from which it has fallen.

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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This text was added to the website: 2026-04-23
Line count: 42
Word count: 360

Translation © by Grant Hicks
4. L’insensé  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: French (Français) 
Avec de grands gestes, il s'éloigna dans la nuit.
Il avait l'air de cueillir des étoiles.

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Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade : poésies chinoises, Paris: H. Piazza, 1920, page 129.


by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)
4. The Madman
Language: English 
With grand gestures, he went off into the night.
He looked as if he were gathering stars.

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.
    Contact: 

Based on:

Based on:

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This text was added to the website: 2026-04-15
Line count: 2
Word count: 17

Translation © by Grant Hicks