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Cette larme est tombée d’un astre, ô Aziza, elle brille au sommet de la colline qui abrite ta demeure. O Aziza, toi-même torche éblouissante qui illumines ma nuit ! O Aziza impétueuse, cette goutte de feu au sommet de la colline, je la contemple, et je pense. Toute l'odeur du désert monte d'une caravane accroupie sur la place des citernes, et une flûte sauvage fait rêver les chameliers. Je m'endormirai, le visage tourné vers cette lumière qui brille au sommet de la colline, comme un voyageur attend l'aube pour apercevoir un lieu vénéré.
Confirmed with La Revue de Paris, Paris: Bureau de la Revue de Paris, 1910, page 878.
Text Authorship:
- by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "La Lumière lointaine", appears in Le jardin des caresses, no. 68, Paris, Éd. H. Piazza, first published 1910 [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Arabic (العربية) by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist [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 Marcel Bernheim (1892 - 1963), "La lumière lointaine", published 1925 [ medium voice and piano ], from Cinq Poèmes Arabes extraits du “Jardin des Caresses” de Franz Toussaint, no. 1, Paris, Éditions Maurice Senart [sung text not yet checked]
- by Armande de Polignac (1876 - 1962), "La Lumière lointaine" [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "Distant Light", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2024-11-25
Line count: 11
Word count: 92
This tear is fallen from a star, O Aziza, it glistens at the top of the hill that shelters your abode. O Aziza, yourself a dazzling torch that lights my night! O impetuous Aziza, that droplet of fire at the top of the hill, I gaze at it and I ponder. All the fragrance of the desert rises from a caravan that crouches at the place of the cisterns, and a wild flute stirs the camel-drivers' dreams. I will go to sleep, my face turned to that light that glistens at the top of the hill, as a traveler waits for dawn to glimpse a sacred place.
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.
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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "La Lumière lointaine", appears in Le jardin des caresses, no. 68, Paris, Éd. H. Piazza, first published 1910
Based on:
- a text in Arabic (العربية) by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist [text unavailable]
This text was added to the website: 2026-02-26
Line count: 11
Word count: 107