On the Banks of the Jo-Yeh | Girls are gathering water lilies

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by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Sur les bords du Jo‑Yeh

Language: French (Français) after the Chinese (中文)

Our translations: ENG GER

Sur les bords du Jo-Yeh,
des jeunes filles cueillent des nénuphars.
Parmi les bambous, elles s'interpellent
et se cachent en riant.
L'eau réfléchit leurs belles robes,
qui parfument la brise.

Des cavaliers passent entre les saules de la rive...
Un des chevaux hennit.
Son maître regarde en vain de tous côtés
et puis s'éloigne.
Sur les bords du Jo-Yeh une des jeunes filles
laisse tomber ses nénuphars et comprime son coeur,
qui bat à grands coups.

Text Authorship:

by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Sur les bords du Jo-Yeh", appears in La flûte de jade, Paris, Éd. H. Piazza, first published 1920 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Based on:

a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762), "采莲曲"
- Go to the text page.

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), "Sur les bords du Jo-Yeh", from Chansons orientales, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "On the Banks of the Jo-Yeh", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "An den Ufern des Jo-yeh", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-06
Line count: 13
Word count: 76

On the Banks of the Jo‑Yeh

Language: English after the French (Français)

[Girls are gathering water lilies
on the banks of the Jo-Yeh.]¹
Amidst the bamboo, they call out to each other 
and playfully conceal themselves.
The water reflects their beautiful robes,
which perfume the breeze.

Horsemen ride by beneath the willows of the riverbank ...
One of the horses whinnies.
Its master looks all around in vain
and then moves off.
[One]² of the girls 
drops her lilies and presses her hand to her heart,
which is pounding.

View text without footnotes
¹ Badings: "On the banks of the Jo-Yeh,/ girls are gathering water lilies."
² Badings: "On the banks of the Jo-Yeh one"

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), "Sur les bords du Jo-Yeh", appears in La flûte de jade, Paris, Éd. H. Piazza, first published 1920
- Go to the text page.

Based on:

a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762), "采莲曲"
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-04-07
Line count: 13
Word count: 78