Mes [baisers seront les]1 abeilles 
[Qui suceront comme des fleurs]2
Tes seins, ces roses sans pareilles, 
Tes yeux, où je boirai [tes]3 pleurs.

Mes baisers viendront à tes lèvres, 
Sous les clairs de lune d'été,
T'exhaler mes soupirs, mes fièvres, 
Rossignols fous de ta beauté.

Et le matin ces hirondelles,
Sur le palais blanc de ton corps,
Mes baisers fermeront leurs ailes, 
De trop d'amour ivres ou morts.

About the headline (FAQ)

View text without footnotes

Confirmed with L'Illusion, Troisième édition, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1893, p. 81.

¹ Fleuret: "baisers comme les"; Sanderson: "baisers, comme des"; further changes may exist for Sanderson's piece, not shown above.
² Fleuret: "Toujours voleront vers ces fleurs"
³ Fleuret: "des"

Text Authorship:

• by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor, "Chanson persane", appears in L'Illusion, in 1. Chants de l'Amour et de la Mort, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1875 [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):

• by Claudius Blanc (1854 - 1900), "Chanson persane" [ medium voice and piano ], from Mélodies Orientales, no. 5, from Mélodies Persanes, no. 2, Édition Rouart, Lerolle [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jacques Dusautoy (1850 - 1915), "Chanson persane !", published 1896 [ voice and piano ], Paris : Quinzard [sung text not yet checked]
• by Daniel Fleuret (1869 - 1915), "Chanson d'orient", published 1912 [ high voice and piano ], from L'Illusion, poème en neuf chants de Jean Lahor, no. 5, Lyon, Éd. Janin Frères [sung text checked 1 time]
• by George Ritas , "Chanson persane", published 1907, Paris : Hachette [sung text not yet checked]
• by Germaine Sanderson , "Chanson persane", published [1910] [ medium voice and piano ], Éd. Enoch & Cie. [sung text not yet checked]

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

• ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2026, (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: 2014-08-03
Line count: 12
Word count: 71

My [kisses will be the]1 bees
[That sip, as if from flowers,]2
[From your]3 breasts, those peerless roses,
[From your]3 eyes, where I will drink [your]4 tears.

My kisses will come to your lips,
Under the light of the Summer moon,
To breathe to you my sighs, my fevers,
Nightingales driven wild by your beauty.

And in the morning those swallows,
On the pale palace of your body,
My kisses will fold their wings,
Drunk or dead from too much love.