The maidens of Yuen | At Ye-ki, the girls who gather water lilies sing as they row

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by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Les jeunes filles de Yuen

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

Our translations: ENG

A Ye-ki, les cueilleuses de nénuphars rament en chantant.
Si un étranger les regarde,
elles se cachent derrière les tas de nénuphars,
font semblant d’être confuses, et rient, et rient…

Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade : poésies chinoises, Paris: H. Piazza, 1922, page 45.

Text Authorship:

by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Les jeunes filles de Yuen", appears in La flûte de jade, Paris, Éd. H. Piazza, first published 1920 [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]

Based on:

a text in Chinese (中文) by Tsao Chang Ling (1719 - 1763) [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 Raymond Moulaert (1875 - 1962), "Les jeunes filles de Yuen", 1917, published 1922 [ high voice and piano ], from Quatre poèmes chinois extraits de La Flûte de Jade de Franz Toussaint, no. 4, Paris, Éd. Maurice Sénart
Score: IMSLP [external link] [sung text checked 1 time]

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

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

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2020-10-14
Line count: 4
Word count: 30

The maidens of Yuen

Language: English after the French (Français)

At Ye-ki, the girls who gather water lilies sing as they row.
If a stranger looks at them, 
they hide behind piles of water lilies, 
pretend to be embarrassed, and laugh and laugh...

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), "Les jeunes filles de Yuen", 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 Tsao Chang Ling (1719 - 1763) [text unavailable]
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-04-23
Line count: 4
Word count: 33