by Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī (c1210 - c1292)
Translation by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)
La lampe
Language: French (Français)  after the Persian (Farsi)
Une certaine nuit, mon ami pénétra dans ma demeure. Je me levai avec une telle promptitude, que ma lampe tomba. Mon ami m’accabla de reproches, disant : — Pourquoi, dès que tu m’as aperçu, as-tu éteint la lampe ? Je répondis : — J’ai cru que le soleil s’était levé … J’ai vu en songe celui dont la beauté illuminerait la nuit la plus obscure. À mon réveil, j’ai pensé : « D’où me vient ce bonheur ? » Si un fâcheux se place devant ta lampe, bondis et tue-le ! Mais si, au contraire, le nouveau venu a des lèvres de miel et un sourire aussi doux que le sucre, saisis-le par le bras et éteins la lampe.
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Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
Text Authorship:
- by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "La lampe", appears in Gulistan. Le jardin des roses, Paris, Éd. Arthème Fayard, first published 1913 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Persian (Farsi) by Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī (c1210 - c1292) [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Kaikhosru Sorabji (1892 - 1988), "La lampe", KSS 42 no. 1 (1926), published 1991, first performed 1999 [ male voice and piano ], from Trois poèmes du “Gulistān” de Saʿdī, no. 1, Bath, The Sorabji Archive [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Charles Hopkins) , "The lamp", written 1995, copyright © 1995, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Edward Rehatsek) , first published by the Kama Shastra Society, first published 1888
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2018-08-28
Line count: 15
Word count: 115