The White Heron | That great snowflake was a heron

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by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Le Héron blanc

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

Our translations: ENG

Ce grand flocon de neige était un héron,
qui vient de se poser sur le lac bleu.
Immobile à l'extrémité d'un banc de sable,
le héron blanc regarde l'Hiver.

Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade : poésies chinoises, Paris: H. Piazza, 1920, pages 52-53.

Text Authorship:

by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Le héron blanc", 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 Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762), "白鹭鹚"
- 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 Odette Gartenlaub (1922 - 2014), "Le Héron blanc", 1948 [ medium voice and piano ], from Cinq Poèmes de Franz Toussaint, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Armande de Polignac (1876 - 1962), "Le Héron blanc", published 1922 [ medium voice and piano ], from La flûte de jade, no. 3, Genève, Éd. A. Henn, also set in English [sung text checked 1 time]

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

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

Research team for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Sharon Krebs [Senior Associate Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2008-02-19
Line count: 4
Word count: 29

The White Heron

Language: English after the French (Français)

That great snowflake was a heron, 
which has just alighted on the blue lake. 
Motionless at the end of a sandbank, 
the white heron regards the Winter.

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), "Le héron blanc", 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), "白鹭鹚"
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-04-13
Line count: 4
Word count: 27