by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)
Translation © by Grant Hicks

La femme au miroir
Language: French (Français)  after the Chinese (中文) 
Our translations:  ENG
Dans le clair de lune, elle est debout, immobile, devant son miroir.
Comme un long coquillage recouvert d'algues,
elle n'est vêtue que de sa chevelure éparse.

Elle vient de tourner la tête.
Elle sourit à une branche de cerisier en fleurs,
dont se détachent des pétales qui tournoient lentement.

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


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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):

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

  • ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "The Woman at the Mirror", 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: 2024-11-16
Line count: 6
Word count: 49

The Woman at the Mirror
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
In the moonlight, she is standing, motionless, in front of her mirror.
Like a long seashell covered in seaweed,
she is clad only in her untidy tresses.

She has just turned her head.
She smiles at a flowering cherry branch,
from which petals are falling in slow spirals.

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.
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This text was added to the website: 2026-04-26
Line count: 6
Word count: 48