You ask what my soul does away in the sky, 
I inwardly smile but I cannot reply; 
Like the peach-blossom carried away by the stream, 
I soar to a world of which you cannot dream. 

Confirmed with Chinese Poetry in English Verse by Herbert Giles, London: Bernard Quaritch; Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, Ltd., 1898, p. 73.

Text Authorship:

• by Herbert Allen Giles (1845 - 1935), "The poet", appears in Chinese Poetry in English Verse, first published 1898 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

• a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762) [text unavailable]
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Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

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Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in French (Français), a translation by Henri Pierre Roché (1879 - 1959) , first published 1907 ; composed by Georges Auric, Ferdinand Barlow.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Bertram Kottmann , "Der Poet", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission ; composed by Gary Bachlund.
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2014-02-08
Line count: 4
Word count: 35