Aimons-nous et rêvons, nous n'aurons pas toujours 
Ce ciel devant nos yeux, doux comme une soierie :
Les morts ne la voient [plus,]1 la belle nuit fleurie 
Qui nous caresse et fait plus tendres nos amours.

About the headline (FAQ)

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Confirmed with Jean Lahor, Les Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1896, page 10.

Note: This is not a translation. Al-Ghazali left no known poetry; these quatrains were written by Jean Lahor (pseudonym of Henri Cazalis), who imagined himself into Al-Ghazali's life and thought, adopting the quatrain form because it was current in Omar Khayyam's era.

¹ Fairchild, Moret: "pas"

Text Authorship:

• by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor, no title, appears in En Orient, in 1. Les Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, in 1. Les amours, in 1. L'Amour de la Femme, no. 22, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1896 [author's text checked 1 time 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):

[ None yet in the database ]

The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

• by Blair Fairchild (1877 - 1933), "Aimons-nous et rêvons", op. 40 no. 5, published 1915 [ high voice and piano ], from Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, no. 5, London, Augener
      Score: IMSLP [external link]
  • View the full text. [sung text checked 1 time]
    
• by Ernest Moret (1871 - 1949), "Aimons-nous et rêvons", published 1919 [ high voice and piano ], from Sous le ciel de l'Islam, no. 11, Paris, Éd. Heugel
  • View the full text. [sung text checked 1 time]
    

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

• DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Joost van der Linden) , "Laat ons beminnen en dromen", copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English (Anyi Sharma) , copyright © 2023, (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: 2018-06-30
Line count: 4
Word count: 36