Precious Sadness | Seated on the terrace of her home, she awaits her betrothed

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by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

La tristesse précieuse

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Assise sur la terrasse de sa demeure, elle attend son fiancé. 
Que la nuit a été longue ! 

Le vent du matin effeuille les glycines. 

Elle regarde ces gouttes d'aube 
qui tombent sur ses bras, et elle soupire.

Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade; poésies chinoises, Piazza, 1926, p.117.

Text Authorship:

by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "La tristesse précieuse", appears in La flûte de jade, first published 1926 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Andrée Marie Clémence Bonhomme (1905 - 1982), "La tristesse précieuse", op. 67 no. 2, op. 62 (1930) [ voice and piano or orchestra ], from La flûte de Jade, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "Precious Sadness", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2024-10-27
Line count: 5
Word count: 37

Precious Sadness

Language: English after the French (Français)

Seated on the terrace of her home, she awaits her betrothed. 
How long the night has been! 

The morning wind blows the petals from the wisteria. 

She gazes at these droplets of the dawn
that fall upon her arms, and she sighs.

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:

a text in French (Français) by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "La tristesse précieuse", appears in La flûte de jade, first published 1926
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-04-17
Line count: 5
Word count: 42