In the garden, under the moonlight

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by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Au jardin, dans le clair de lune

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

Our translations: ENG

Au jardin, dans le clair de lune,
notre servante racle avec tant d'ardeur une carpe dorée, 
que ses écailles volent de tous côtés, et sans doute jusqu'au ciel.
Ces belles étoiles, là-haut, doivent être les écailles de notre poisson.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade, Paris: H. Piazza, 1926, page 63.

Text Authorship:

by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Avant le repas", 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 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 François Steenhuis (1918 - 1956), "La carpe", op. 6 no. 3 (1947), published 1958 [ medium voice and piano or orchestra ], from Trois mélodies, no. 3, Amsterdam, Donemus [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , 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: 2025-02-21
Line count: 4
Word count: 39

In the garden, under the moonlight

Language: English after the French (Français)

In the garden, under the moonlight, 
our maidservant scrapes a golden carp with such zeal
that its scales fly in every direction, and doubtless all the way to heaven.
Those beautiful stars, up above, must be the scales from our fish.

About the headline (FAQ)

Translations of titles:
"Avant le repas" = "Before the Meal"
"La carpe" = "The Carp"

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), "Avant le repas", 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: 2026-04-09
Line count: 4
Word count: 41