Playful Girl | Like a honeysuckle that thrusts itself

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by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

La joueuse

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Comme un chèvre-feuille qui s'élance
Au-dessus du mur et que balance
Le vent, ô belle comme le jour,
Sans te poser à terre, tu cours.

Text Authorship:

by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938), "La joueuse", written 1923-25, appears in Les livres des quatrains, in 3. Troisième livre, no. 23 [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 Marcel Delannoy (1898 - 1962), "La joueuse", 1935, published 1936, copyright © 1936 [ high voice and piano or orchestra ], from Cinq Quatrains de Francis Jammes, no. 2, Éd. Heugel [sung text checked 1 time]
by Jean Papineau-Couture (1916 - 2000), "La joueuse", 1947, copyright © 1947 [ high voice and piano ], from Quatrains, no. 3, Montréal, Éd. Doberman-Yppan [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "Playful Girl", copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 4
Word count: 25

Playful Girl

Language: English after the French (Français)

Like a honeysuckle that thrusts itself 
Over the wall and sways
In the wind - you, fair as the morn,
Run without touching the ground.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 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 Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938), "La joueuse", written 1923-25, appears in Les livres des quatrains, in 3. Troisième livre, no. 23
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-09-12
Line count: 4
Word count: 24