The Bath | With raised eyebrows and open mouth, you watched your robe

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by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Le Bain

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

Our translations: ENG

Les sourcils remontés, la bouche ouverte, tu regardais fuir,
dans le courant du fleuve, ta robe qui t'avait échappé. 
Je passais sur la berge, et je t'ai crié : 
« Salut, fille de Bakili ! Que le bonheur soit avec toi ! » 
Tu m'as répondu : « Comment serais-je heureuse ? 
Vois ma robe dans le courant... »
Le poète sait user des circonstances, et je t'ai dit : 
« Fille de Bakili,  
ta jeunesse est semblable à ta robe dans le courant : 
elle s'éloigne de toi, chaque jour, et tu ne peux la retenir. 
Ne demeure pas à la regarder s'en aller. 
Viens sous ces ombrages...  Je te ferai une robe de caresses. »

Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, Le Jardin des Caresses, 73e édition, Paris : L'édition d'art H. Piazza, 1921, pages 40-41.

Text Authorship:

by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Le Bain", written 1929?, appears in Le jardin des caresses, no. 39, 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 Maurice Perez , "Le Bain", published 1925 [ high voice and piano ], from Dix Mélodies Arabes, no. 5, Éd. Rouart-Lerolle (Salabert) [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "The Bath", 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: 2025-02-17
Line count: 12
Word count: 110

The Bath

Language: English after the French (Français)

With raised eyebrows and open mouth, you watched your robe
rushing away in the river's current, your robe which had gotten away from you.
I was passing on the bank, and I called out:
"Greetings, daughter of Bakili! May fortune be with you!" 
You answered me: "How am I to be fortunate? 
Look at my robe in the current ..." 
The poet knows how to seize an opportunity, and I said:
"Daughter of Bakili,
your youth is like your robe in the current:
every day it drifts farther away from you, and you cannot hold on to it.
Do not waste time watching it go.
Come here, into the shade ... I will make you a robe of caresses."

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 Bain", written 1929?, appears in Le jardin des caresses, no. 39, 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: 2026-03-16
Line count: 12
Word count: 118