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Un soir que je respirais le parfum des fleurs au bord de la rivière, le vent m'apporta la chanson d'une flûte lointaine. Pour lui répondre, je coupai une branche de saule, et la chanson de ma flûte berça la nuit charmée. Depuis ce soir-là, tous les jours, à l'heure où la campagne s'endort, les oiseaux entendent se répondre deux oiseaux inconnus, dont ils comprennent cependant le langage.
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, La flûte de jade : poésies chinoises, Paris: H. Piazza, 1920, pages 63-64.
Text Authorship:
- by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Les deux flûtes" [an adaptation] [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762), "春夜洛城闻笛"
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by René Bernier (1905 - 1984), "Dialogue dans la nuit", copyright © 1985 [ voice and piano ], from Poèmes exotiques, no. 2, Brussels: Ed. Bizet (réduction de l'orchestre) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Therèse Brenet (b. 1935), "Les 2 flûtes", copyright © 2008 [ baritone, flute and piano ], from Poème de Jade, no. 7, Editions de la Fabrique Musique [sung text not yet checked]
- by Marius-François Gaillard (1900 - 1973), "Les Deux flûtes", published 1926 [ voice and piano ], from Quatre mélodies chinoises, no. 1, Paris : Choudens [sung text not yet checked]
- by Pierre Paubon (1910 - 1995), "Les deux flûtes", published 1949 [ voice, flute and piano ], from Sept mélodies, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Manuel M. Ponce (1883 - 1948), "Les deux flûtes", 1932, first performed 1934 [ voice and piano ], from Cinco poemas chinos, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Rosalie Marie Wertheim (1888 - 1949), "Les deux flûtes", 1939 [ soprano, flute and harp or piano ], from Trois Chansons pour soprano, flûte et harpe, no. 2, confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Dutch (Nederlands), a translation by Jules Bernard Schürmann (1873 - 1927) , from Chineesche verzen, first published 1916 ; composed by Marie Cornélie Cathérine Reynvaan.
- Also set in English, a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Samuel Hans Adler.
- Also set in English, a translation by Shigeyoshi Obata (1888 - 1971) , "On hearing the flute at Lo-Cheng one spring night", appears in Li Po, the Chinese poet, done into English verse ; composed by Phyllis Campbell.
- Also set in Finnish (Suomi), a translation by Eino Tikkanen ; composed by Sulho Veikko Juhani Ranta.
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- Also set in French (Français), a translation by Judith Gautier (1845 - 1917) , "La flûte mystérieuse", appears in Le livre de jade, 1867 edition, in 7. Les poëtes, no. 4, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1867 ; composed by Gabriel-André Fabre.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Alfred Henschke (1890 - 1928) ; composed by Emil Anner, Helmut Barbe, Kurt Brüggemann, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, Wilhelm Rettich, Helmut Riethmüller.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Hans Bethge (1876 - 1946) , "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", appears in Die chinesische Flöte [an adaptation] ; composed by Hans Altmann, Gottfried von Einem, Maria Herz, Artur Immisch, Sigurd von Koch, Leonard Pieter Joseph Michielsen, Krzysztof Penderecki, Julius Röntgen, James Martin Simon, Emil Sjögren, Ernst Toch, Rudolf Wagner-Régeny, Anton von Webern, Egon Joseph Wellesz, Georg Wolfsohn.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel (1863 - 1920) , "Die ferne Laute" ; composed by Josef Schelb.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Max Fleischer (1880 - 1941) , "Geheimnisvolles Zwiegespräch zweier Flöten", appears in Der Porzellanpavillon: Nachdichtungen Chinesischer Lyrik von Max Fleisher, first published 1927 ; composed by Philipp Schoeller.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Max Geilinger (1884 - 1948) , "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte" ; composed by Benno Ammann.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Manfred Hausmann (1898 - 1986) ; composed by Neithard Bethke.
Other 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: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2010-08-29
Line count: 10
Word count: 67
One evening when I was breathing the scent of the flowers on the riverbank, the wind carried to me the song of a distant flute. To answer it, I cut a willow branch, and the song of my flute lulled the enchanted night. Since that evening, every day, at the hour when the countryside falls asleep, the birds hear calling back and forth two birds they do not know, but whose language they still understand.
About the headline (FAQ)
Translations of titles:
"Dialogue dans la nuit" = "Dialogue in the Night"
"Les 2 flûtes" = "The 2 Flutes"
"Les deux flûtes" = "The Two Flutes"
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 deux flûtes" [an adaptation]
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762), "春夜洛城闻笛"
This text was added to the website: 2026-04-14
Line count: 10
Word count: 75