Stars, celestial musicians, your song

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

If you wish to reprint translations, please use the Reprint Basket (upper right hand corner).

Reminder: You must always use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Astres, musiciens célestes, votre chant

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Astres, musiciens célestes, votre chant,
Fait de vibrations qui semblent du silence,
S'unit à ma pensée, en rêves s'épanchant
Sur ces flots, où la lune émerge et se balance.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor: En Orient, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, Page 34.

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.

Text Authorship:

by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor, no title, written 1896, appears in En Orient, in 1. Les Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, in 1. Les amours, in 1. L'Amour de la Femme, no. 46, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1896 [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):

[ None yet in the database ]

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

by Ernest Moret (1871 - 1949), "Astres, musiciens célestes", published 1919 [ high voice and piano ], from Sous le ciel de l'Islam, no. 12, Paris, Éd. Heugel
Score: IMSLP [external link]
- View the full text. [sung text checked 1 time]

Another version of this text exists in the database.

Go to the text. [ view differences ]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2023-02-11
Line count: 4
Word count: 29

Stars, celestial musicians, your song

Language: English after the French (Français)

Add this translation to the Basket

Stars, celestial musicians, your song,
Made of vibrations that seem like silence,
Joins with my thoughts, pouring forth in dreams 
On those tides where the moon emerges and floats.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 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 Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor, no title, written 1896, appears in En Orient, in 1. Les Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, in 1. Les amours, in 1. L'Amour de la Femme, no. 46, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1896
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-07-21
Line count: 4
Word count: 29