Philosophy | A flock of birds has descended upon my flowering peach tree

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by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Philosophie

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

Our translations: ENG

Une bande d’oiseaux s’est abattue sur mon pêcher en fleurs.
La gelée de cette nuit n’a donc pas fait assez de ravages ?
Les misérables !
Ils se poursuivent de branche en branche.
Une pluie de pétales [tombe]¹  sur le gazon.
Tiens ! Tiens !
Cette neige rose,
comme [dans]² les jardins où se promènent les Immortels...
Merci, petits oiseaux turbulents !
Je n’aurai pas beaucoup de pêches,
mais sur quel beau tapis je m’étendrai,
tout à l’heure !

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• E. Claisse

View text without footnotes

Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade : poésies chinoises, Paris: H. Piazza, 1926, page 77.

¹ Claisse: "tombent"
² omitted by Claisse.

Text Authorship:

by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Philosophie", 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 Kheng-Tsin (713 - 734) [text unavailable]
- 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 Elisabeth Claisse (1902 - 1997), "Philosophie", 1923, published [1923] [ high voice and piano ], Paris, Édition B. Roudanez [sung text checked 1 time]

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

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

Research team for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2023-08-18
Line count: 12
Word count: 75

Philosophy

Language: English after the French (Français)

A flock of birds has descended upon my flowering peach tree. 
Tonight's frost hasn't done enough damage, then?
The wretched things!
They chase each other from branch to branch.
A rain of petals [falls]¹ onto the grass.
But wait!
This pink snow,
[as in]² the gardens where the Immortals walk...
Thank you, boisterous little birds!
I won't have a lot of peaches,
but what a fine carpet I will be stretched out on,
in just a moment!

View text without footnotes
¹ Claisse: "fall"
² Claisse: "like"

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), "Philosophie", 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 Kheng-Tsin (713 - 734) [text unavailable]
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-04-24
Line count: 12
Word count: 79