J'avais mis toute mon âme dans une chanson
que j'ai chanté aux hommes, et ils ont ri !
j'ai pris mon luth,
je suis allé m'asseoir au sommet d'une montagne
et j'ai [chanté, pour les Dieux,]1 la chanson 
que les hommes n'avaient pas comprise.
Le soleil se couchait.
Au rhythme de ma chanson,
les Dieux ont dansé sur les nuages rouges
qui flottaient dans le ciel.

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Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade, poésies chinoises, Paris, L'édition d'art H. Piazza, 1920, pages 130-131.

¹ Wertheim: "chanté"

Text Authorship:

• by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "La danse des Dieux", 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) [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):

• by Henk Badings (1907 - 1987), "La danse des dieux", 1973 [ mixed chorus ], from Cinq poèmes chinois, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by G. Basilewsky , "La danse des dieux", op. 18 no. 3 [ voice and piano ], from Trois poèmes chinois, no. 3, Bruxelles : L' Art belge [sung text not yet checked]
• by Therèse Brenet (b. 1935), "La danse des dieux", copyright © 2008 [ baritone, flute and piano ], from Poème de Jade, no. 5, Editions de la Fabrique Musique [sung text not yet checked]
• by Rosalie Marie Wertheim (1888 - 1949), "La danse des dieux", 1939 [ soprano, flute and harp or piano ], from Trois Chansons pour soprano, flûte et harpe, no. 1, confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in Dutch (Nederlands), a translation by (Stephanie) Hélène Swarth (1859 - 1941) , "De dans der goden", subtitle: "Li-Tai-Po", appears in De Chineesche fluit ; composed by Tera de Marez-Oyens, Simon Pluister.
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• Also set in English, a translation by Logan Pearsall Smith (1865 - 1946) ; composed by Frederick Septimus Kelly.
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• Also set in English, a translation by Stuart Merrill (1863 - 1915) ; composed by Arthur Farwell, Margaret Ruthven Lang.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Hans Bethge (1876 - 1946) , "Der Tanz der Götter" ; composed by Neithard Bethke, Maria Herz, Lise Maria Mayer, Anatol Provaznik.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Alfred Henschke (1890 - 1928) ; composed by Volkmar Andreae, Helmut Barbe, Kurt Brüggemann.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Hans Heilmann (1859 - 1930) ; composed by Adolf Schreiber.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "The Dance of the Gods", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2017-12-24
Line count: 10
Word count: 66