Happiness | That night, you looked at the sky ablaze with stars

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by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Le bonheur

Language: French (Français) after the Arabic (العربية)

Our translations: ENG

Cette nuit-là, tu regardais le ciel embrasé d'étoiles.
Tu disais : « Je pense aux jardins de Damas,
qui ont des fleurs bien plus belles... »

Assis dans l'ombre, je caressais tes jambes,
qui humiliaient le clair de lune.

Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, Le jardin des caresses, L'édition d'Art H. Piazza, p.115

Text Authorship:

by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Le bonheur", appears in Le jardin des caresses, no. 121, Paris, Éd. Piazza [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

a text in Arabic (العربية) by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist [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 Jacqueline Despas (1893 - 1968), "Le bonheur", published 1923 [ medium voice and piano ], from Poèmes Arabes, no. 17, Paris, Éd. Jobert [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "Happiness", 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: 2023-05-19
Line count: 5
Word count: 38

Happiness

Language: English after the French (Français)

That night, you looked at the sky ablaze with stars.
You said, "I'm thinking of the gardens of Damascus,
which have much more beautiful flowers ..." 

Seated in the shadows, I stroked your legs,
which put the moonlight to shame.

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 bonheur", appears in Le jardin des caresses, no. 121, Paris, Éd. Piazza
- Go to the text page.

Based on:

a text in Arabic (العربية) by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist [text unavailable]
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-02-27
Line count: 5
Word count: 40