Quatrains of Al-Ghazali

Translations © by Grant Hicks

by Blair Fairchild (1877 - 1933)

View original-language texts alone: Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, op. 40

 (The following is a multi-text setting.)

1. Le grand jardin d'azur 
Le grand jardin d'azur, la nuit, va se rouvrir ;
Mon amour, allons voir loin de la foule humaine 
Venir à nous la Lune en sa robe de reine, 
Et dans ce jardin bleu les étoiles fleurir.
Viens ô bien-aimée, viens !

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Confirmed with Jean Lahor, Les Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1896, page 19.

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.


Researcher for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] 
Mon âme en toi veut fuir le monde détesté. 
Hors de ce monde impur elle veut pour asiles 
Tes grands yeux verts, frais et fleuris comme des îles, 
Et mon refuge aimant sera ta pureté.

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 36.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Je voudrais t’emporter dans une solitude 
Où fleurirait ton corps seulement pour mes yeux ; 
Et pouvoir y goûter cette béatitude 
De ne plus voir que toi, des forêts et les cieux.

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 36.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Author(s): Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909)
1. 
The great azure garden at night will open again;
My love, let us go and see, far from the human throng,
The Moon coming to us in her queenly robes,
And the stars blossoming in that garden of blue.
Come, O beloved, come!

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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My soul wants to flee in you the hated world.
Beyond this sullied world it seeks the asylum
Of your large green eyes, fresh and aflower like islands,
And my loving refuge will be your purity.

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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I long to carry you away into a solitude 
Where your body would blossom for my eyes alone;
And to be able there to taste that bliss
Of no longer seeing anything but you, the forests and the skes.

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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Translation © by Grant Hicks

 (The following is a multi-text setting.)

2. Oh ! Mon amour 
Oh ! mon amour, pourquoi, quand nous sommes ensemble,
Délicieusement, ai-je le cœur qui tremble ?...
Comme lui, la mer tremble au coucher du soleil,
Et la forêt, sous l'aube aimante, à son éveil.

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 25.

Note: in Moret's sung text, the lines are followed by "La mélodie aimante et calme de la nuit/ S'écoule sur la ville apaisée." These lines come from the quatrain that begins "La mélodie aimante et calme de la nuit".

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.


Researcher for this page: Johann Winkler 
Les lignes de ton corps sont comme une musique,
Tout ton être, tes bras, tes seins délicieux
Créent des rythmes parfaits pour mon âme extatique ;
Et je les goûte avec des larmes dans les yeux.

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 26.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Ta beauté, quand tu pars, me laisse comme un chant,
Dont la tendre douceur tout entier me pénètre ;
Et mon âme s'emplit de soupirs l'étouffant,
Et ce chant merveilleux fait trembler tout mon être.

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Confirmed with Jean Lahor, Les Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1896, page 30.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Author(s): Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909)
2. 
Oh! my love, why, when we are together, 
Delightfully, do I find my heart trembling? 
Like it, the sea trembles at the setting of the sun, 
And the forest, under the loving dawn, at its rising.

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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The lines of your body are like music,
All your being, your arms, your delicious breasts,
Create perfect rhythms for my ecstatic soul;
And I taste them with tears in my eyes.

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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Your beauty, when you depart, leaves me like a song
Whose tender sweetness penetrates me through;
And my soul is filled with suffocating sighs,
And that wonderful song makes my whole being tremble.

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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Translation © by Grant Hicks

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3. Nocturne 
Le clair de lune est comme un soupir de la nuit :
Que de soupirs aussi dans tout mon cœur qui tremble 
Et dans le tien, goûtant l'extase d'être ensemble,
Sous l'infini soupir de ce grand ciel qui luit !

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Confirmed with Jean Lahor, Les Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1896, page 9.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Ah ! douce nuit chaude et pâmée !
Tes jeunes seins sont frais comme le clair de lune.
Ta chair sous mes baisers semble une chair de fleur.
Oh ! comment les soupir et décrire une à une,
Ces beautés en ton corps d'une exquise pâleur ?

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 20.

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.


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor] 
Sous la nuit chaude parfumée
Par la blanche odeur de jasmins,
Oh ! qu'il est doux, près de l'aimée
De pleurer d'amour sur ses mains !

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 27.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Si tout mon cœur pouvait ainsi qu'en ce moment,
Sans fin trembler d'amour, délicieusement,
Tel qu'une harpe d'or que l'on touche et qui pleure !
Si je pouvais aimer sans fin, comme à cette heure !

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 28.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Author(s): Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909)
3. 
The moonlight is like a sigh of the night:
How many sighs, too, in my whole trembling heart
And in yours, tasting the ecstasy of being together,
Beneath the infinite sigh of this great glowing sky!

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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Ah ! sweet night, warm and languid!
Your young breasts are fresh like the moonlight.
Your flesh under my kisses seems the flesh of a flower.
Oh! how to sigh and describe them one by one,
These beauties in your exquisitely pale body?

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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Beneath the warm night perfumed
By the white fragrance of jasmines,
Oh ! how sweet it is, beside one's beloved,
To weep for love upon her hands!

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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If only my whole heart could, as at this moment,
Tremble endlessly with love, deliciously,
Like a golden harp that weeps when it is plucked!
If only I could love endlessly, as I do now!

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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4. Je ne chercherai pas 
Je ne chercherai pas à te jamais comprendre,
Je ne chercherai pas à savoir si tu mens,
Pourvu que ton regard ou ta voix me soit tendre,
Pourvu que tes deux bras me soient toujours aimants.

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 63.

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.


Researcher for this page: Johann Winkler 
Si tu m'aimes ou non, je ne le veux savoir ;
Je t'aime et m'en contente, et ne sais qu'une chose,
C'est que ton corps exquis est doux comme la rose
Qu'en rêvant on respire et baise tout un soir.

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 63.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Author(s): Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909)
4. 
I will not seek ever to understand you,
I will not seek to know if you are lying,
As long as your gaze and your voice are sweet to me,
As long as your embrace is always loving.

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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Whether or not you love me, I do not wish to know;
I love you and am satisfied with that, and I know one thing only,
That your exquisite body is as sweet as the rose
That in a dream one inhales and kisses all evening long.

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

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Confirmed with Henri Cazalis, Œuvres de Jean Lahor: En Orient,  Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 22.

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.


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] 
Mets mon front sur ton sein, mets ta main sur mes yeux :
Oh ! cache-moi la mort, et cache-moi la vie ! 
Rien au monde que toi, rien ne faisant envie 
A mon cœur caressé par ton toucher soyeux.

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 22.

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.


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] 
Bois, ô lune d'amour, à la coupe vermeille, 
Car la lune du ciel, après nous, bien longtemps 
Luira sur ces vergers des milliers de printemps, 
Mais sans nous retrouver par une nuit pareille.
Aimons-nous et rêvons, et rêvons.

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Confirmed with Jean Lahor, Les Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1896, page 13.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Author(s): Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909)
5. Drink from the Ruby Goblet
Let us love each other and dream, we will not always have 
This sky before our eyes, as soft as silk:
The dead do not see it, the beautiful blossoming night
That caresses us and makes our love more tender.

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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Place my brow on your breast, place your hand over my eyes:
Oh! hide death from me, and hide life from me!
Nothing in the world but you, nothing to tempt
My heart caressed by your silken touch.

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  • 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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Drink, O moon of love, from the ruby goblet,
For after us the moon in the sky will for ages
Shine on these orchards, across thousands of springs,
Without once finding us again on such a night.

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.
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6. Près de l'aimée 
[La pleine lune]1 avec son pâle enchantement
Extasiait la terre et charmait toutes choses ;
Les rossignols pleuraient dans le harem des roses,
Et nos cœurs dans la nuit se fondaient en aimant.

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 30.

Note for line 1: in Fairchild's setting, in the repetition, "avec son pâle enchantement" is omitted.

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 Moret: "La lune"

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Johann Winkler 
Sous la nuit chaude parfumée
Par la blanche odeur de jasmins,
Oh ! qu'il est doux, près de l'aimée
De pleurer d'amour sur ses mains !

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See other settings of this text.

Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 27.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Author(s): Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909)
6. 
The full moon with its pale enchantment 
Enraptured the world and cast a spell over everything;
The nightingales wept in the harem of the roses,
And our loving hearts intermingled in the night.

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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1 Moret: "moon"


Beneath the warm night perfumed
By the white fragrance of jasmines,
Oh ! how sweet it is, beside one's beloved,
To weep for love upon her hands!

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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7. Heure pâle 
Quand le vent fait pleurer les flûtes des roseaux,
Que dans l'air froid du soir taisent les oiseaux,
Quand tombent le silence et l'ombre sur la plaine,
Ô mon âme, pourquoi ta tristesse soudaine ?

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 38.

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.


Researcher for this page: Johann Winkler 
Heure pâle où se meurt tout bruit !
Le monde est comme une féerie.
La robe noire de la nuit
Par le clair de lune est fleurie.

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Confirmed with Jean Lahor, Les Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1896, page 16.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Je rêve d'un amour étrange et sans pareil,
Fait d'adoration très tendre un peu mystique,
Presque semblable à des caresses de musique ;
Je rêve d'un amour, qui n'ait pas de réveil.

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 18.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Author(s): Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909)
7. 
When the wind makes the flutes of the reeds weep,
When the birds fall silent in the chill of evening,
When silence and shadow fall over the plain,
O my soul, why your sudden sadness?

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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Pale hour when all sound dies!
The world is like a fairyland.
The black mantle of the night
The moonlight adorns with flowers.

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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I dream of a love strange and without equal,
Made of tenderest adoration, a bit mystical,
Almost like music's caresses;
I dream of a love from which there is no waking.

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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Translation © by Grant Hicks

 (The following is a multi-text setting.)

8. La Mélodie aimante 
La mélodie aimante et calme de la nuit 
S'écoule sur la ville apaisée ; et tout bruit
Auprès de nous s'éteint pour la laisser entendre ; 
-- Et le chant de tes yeux se fait aussi plus tendre.

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Confirmed with Jean Lahor, Les Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1896, page 12.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Par les rameaux silencieux 
Vois les gouttes du clair de lune 
Couler sur les fleurs une à une, 
Larmes pâles tombant des cieux.

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 54.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Fraternise, ô mon âme, avec les astres d'or,
Âmes aussi, brûlant par la nuit infinie, 
Brûle comme eux, palpite, aime et souffre, aime encor ; 
Avec l'aube et les soirs sublimes communie.

Text Authorship:

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Confirmed with Jean Lahor, Les Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1896, page 12.

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.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Author(s): Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909)
8. 
The night's calm and loving melody 
Flows over the peaceful town; and all noise
Around us dies away so that it can be heard;
— And the song of your eyes also grows more tender.

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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Translations of titles:
"Sur la terrasse, le soir" = "On the Terrace, in the Evening"



Through the silent branches
See the drops of moonlight 
Spilling over the flowers one by one, 
Pale tears falling from the skies.

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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Befriend, O my soul, the golden stars,
Souls themselves that burn in the endless night,
Burn as they do, throb, love and suffer, love once more;
Commune with the dawn and with evenings sublime.

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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Translation © by Grant Hicks