My kisses will be the bees

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

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Chanson d'orient

(Sung text for setting by D. Fleuret)

See original

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Mes baisers comme les abeilles 
Toujours voleront vers ces fleurs
Tes seins, ces roses sans pareilles, 
Tes yeux, où je boirai des 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.

Composition:

Daniel Fleuret

L'Illusion, poème en neuf chants de Jean Lahor

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

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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

Song from the East

(Sung text translation for setting by D. Fleuret)

See original

Language: English after the French (Français)

My kisses, like the bees
Will always fly towards those flowers,
Your breasts, those peerless roses,
Your eyes, where I will drink  ...  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.

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 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
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This text was added to the website: 2026-06-26
Line count: 12
Word count: 86