by
Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)
Évocation
Language: French (Français) after the Chinese (中文)
Rapide, ma barque file.
Je contemple le fleuve.
Des nuages errent dans le ciel.
L'eau est aussi de la nuit claire.
Quand un nuage glisse sur la lune,
je le vois [glisser]1 sur le fleuve
et il me semble que je vogue en plein ciel.
Je pense à ma bien-aimée,
qui se mire ainsi dans mon cœur.
Available sung texts: (what is this?)
• H. Badings View text without footnotes
Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade : poésies chinoises, Paris: H. Piazza, 1920, pages 129-130.
1 Badings: "glisser aussi"
Text Authorship:
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Chang-Wou-Kien (1879 - 1931) [text unavailable]
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), "Evocation", 1973 [ mixed chorus ], from Cinq poèmes chinois, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by René Bernier (1905 - 1984), "Evocation", 1923, published 1924 [ voice and piano ], from Poèmes exotiques, no. 1, Bruxelles : Maison de Aynssa E. de Saedeleer & Cie [sung text not yet checked]
- by André Bled , "Évocation", 1946 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jacqueline Despas (1893 - 1968), "Évocation", published 1926 [ medium voice and piano ], from Poèmes Chinois Extraits de La Flûte de jade, no. 4, Éd. Jean Jobert [sung text not yet checked]
- by Odette Gartenlaub (1922 - 2014), "Évocation", 1950 [ voice and piano ], from Cinq Poèmes de Franz Toussaint, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "Evocation", 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: 2024-11-13
Line count: 9
Word count: 58
Evocation
Language: English after the French (Français)
Swiftly, my boat sails along.
I contemplate the river.
Clouds are roaming in the sky.
The water like the night glistens.
When a cloud glides across the moon,
I see it [gliding]1 across the river
and I seem to be sailing in midair.
I think about my beloved,
who is likewise mirrored in my heart.
View text without footnotes
1 Badings: "gliding also"
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: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Chang-Wou-Kien (1879 - 1931) [text unavailable]
This text was added to the website: 2026-04-09
Line count: 9
Word count: 56
