Even so... | That promise you'd made to me

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by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Pourtant ...

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

Our translations: ENG

Cette promesse que vous m'aviez faite,
sous l'acacia en fleurs,  hier soir ? 
Mais, où est la rosée qui alourdissait les fleurs de l'acacia ?

Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade ; poésies chinoises, Paris: H. Piazza, 1926, p.71.

Text Authorship:

by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Pourtant !", 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 Chang-Wou-Kien (1879 - 1931) [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 G. Basilewsky , "Pourtant", op. 18 no. 2 [ voice and piano ], from Trois poèmes chinois, no. 2, Bruxelles : L' Art belge [sung text not yet checked]
by Jacqueline Despas (1893 - 1968), "Pourtant ...", published 1926 [ medium voice and piano ], from Poèmes Chinois Extraits de La Flûte de jade, no. 3, Éd. Jean Jobert [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "Even so...", 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: 2024-11-13
Line count: 3
Word count: 23

Even so...

Language: English after the French (Français)

That promise you'd made to me,
under the flowering acacia last night? 
But where is the dew that was weighing down the acacia flowers?

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), "Pourtant !", 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 Chang-Wou-Kien (1879 - 1931) [text unavailable]
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-04-15
Line count: 3
Word count: 24