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Avec leurs ailes nuancées,
Les libellules élancées
Comme des miss,
Dansent, le soir, sur l'eau sans vagues,
Des ballets vagues
Sous les yeux glauques des fourmis.
Pour bien rythmer leurs jeux frivoles,
Quelques cigales bénévoles
Pincent leur luth,
Et, sous un pied de betterave,
Un crapaud grave
Fait le ténor et lance l'ut.
Alors, pour voir les ballerines,
Des coccinelles purpurines
Au clair manteau
Grimpent, avec des sauterelles,
Sur les joncs frêles
Comme sur des mâts de bateau.
Les libellules dansent, dansent,
Et les feuilles qui se balancent
Dans les zéphirs
Ont l'air de mains applaudisseuses
Pour les danseuses
Au maillot bleu fait de saphirs.
Et l'eau sourit vers le ciel rose,
Et, parfois, un goujon morose
Qui s'égara
Ouvre, à ces visions célestes
De tutus lestes,
Des yeux d'abonné d'Opéra !
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Anthologie des poètes français contemporains. Le Parnasse et les écoles postérieures au Parnasse (1866-1906); morceaux choisis, accompagnés de notices bio- et bibliographiques et de nombreux autographes. Préface de Sully Prudhomme, tome deuxième, Paris: C. Delagrave, 1906, pages 188-189.
Text Authorship:
- by Laurent Labaigt (1859 - 1942), as Jean Rameau, "Danse des libellules" [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]
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 Berthet (1873 - 1956), "Danse des libellules", op. 23 no. 3 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by René Doire (1879 - 1959), "Danse des libellules", published [1918] [ voice and piano ], Paris : Société anonyme des Editions Ricordi [sung text not yet checked]
- by Joseph Jongen (1873 - 1953), "La Danse des libellules", 1919 [ vocal quartet and orchestra or piano ] [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: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2014-06-12
Line count: 30
Word count: 133
With their subtly tinted wings,
The dragonflies, slender
As young girls,
Dance in the evening, over still water,
Obscure ballets
Under the greenish eyes of the ants.
To keep time for their fanciful games,
A few cicadas volunteer
To pluck their lute,
And under a beetroot plant
A solemn toad
Takes the tenor and sounds a C.
Then, to see the ballerinas,
Ruby-colored ladybirds
In their bright mantles
Climb, with the grasshoppers,
Up the frail rushes
As if up the masts of a ship.
The dragonflies dance, dance,
And the leaves that flutter
In the breeze
Look like hands applauding
For the dancers
In blue leotards made of sapphires.
And the water smiles at the pink sky,
And, at times, a dour gudgeon
Who has lost its way
Opens to these heavenly visions
Of lissome tutus
The eyes of an Opera subscriber!
About the headline (FAQ)
Translations of titles:
"Danse des libellules" = "Dance of the Dragonflies"
"La Danse des libellules" = "The Dance of the Dragonflies"
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 Laurent Labaigt (1859 - 1942), as Jean Rameau, "Danse des libellules"
This text was added to the website: 2026-02-21
Line count: 30
Word count: 142