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Sur ma flûte d'ébène, j'ai joué, pour toi, l'air le plus passionné que je connaissais, mais tu regardais les pivoines, sans m'écouter. [Je]1 t'ai donné une poésie où j'avais célébré ta beauté, mais tu l'as déchirée et tu en as jeté les morceaux dans le lac, parce qu'il n'avait pas de nénuphars, m'as-tu dit. Je voulais te donner un merveilleux saphir, limpide et froid comme une nuit d'hiver, mais je l'ai gardé pour qu'il me rapelle ton cœur.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text without footnotesConfirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade : poésies chinoises, Paris: H. Piazza, 1920, pages 97-98.
1 Badings: "Puis je"Text Authorship:
- by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "L'indifférente", appears in La flûte de jade, Paris, Éd. H. Piazza, first published 1920 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Wan-Tsi [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), "L'indifférente", from Chansons orientales, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Nico Hermans (1919 - 1988), "L'indifférente", op. 13 (1952), copyright © 1952 [ voice and piano ], from La flûte de jade, no. 2, Amsterdam : Donemus [sung text not yet checked]
- by Pierre, Baron de Maurice (1868 - 1936), "Indifférente", op. 36 no. 5 (1925-1926), published [1927] [ voice and piano ], from La flûte de jade: Sept Poésies chinoises traduites par Franz Toussaint, no. 5, London, Oxford University Press [sung text not yet checked]
- by Max d'Ollone (1875 - 1959), "L'indifférente", published 2002 [ medium voice and piano ], from Les chants d'ailleurs, no. 3, Paris : Heugel : A. Leduc [sung text not yet checked]
- by Pierre Paubon (1910 - 1995), "L'indifférente", published 1949 [ voice, flute and piano ], from Sept mélodies, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2003-11-06
Line count: 11
Word count: 79
Auf meiner Ebenholzflöte habe ich für dich die leidenschaftlichste Melodie gespielt, die ich kannte, doch du hast die Päonien betrachtet und hörtest mir nicht zu. Dann habe ich dir ein Gedicht gegeben, in dem ich deine Schönheit pries, doch hast du es zerrissen, und es in den See geworfen, weil er keine Seerosen hatte, wie du mir gesagt. Ich wollt’ dir einen wundervollen Saphir schenken, klar und kalt wie eine Winternacht, doch hab’ ich ihn behalten, auf dass er mich an dein Herz gemahnt.
About the headline (FAQ)
Translation of title "L'indifférente" = "Die Gleichgültige"Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann. Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "L'indifférente", appears in La flûte de jade, Paris, Éd. H. Piazza, first published 1920
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Wan-Tsi [text unavailable]
This text was added to the website: 2015-09-22
Line count: 11
Word count: 84