The moon, gentle silver lute

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

Translation © by Grant Hicks

La lune, tendre luth d’argent

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Chosen for Diff

La lune, tendre luth d’argent, 
Dont les rayons blancs sont les cordes, 
Avec mon cœur triste et changeant, 
Doucement, Allah, tu l’accordes.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 55.

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, appears in En Orient, in 1. Les Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, in 1. Les amours, in 1. L'Amour de la Femme, no. 87 [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):

[ None yet in the database ]

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

by Théodore Terestchenko (1888 - 1950), "Contemplation", op. 41, published 1917 [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Éditions Ricordi
- View the full text. [sung text not yet checked]
by Rodolphe Théophile Cahen d'Anvers, marquis de Torre Alfina (1869 - 1955), "Heure pâle", published 1906 [ medium voice and piano ], from L'Idylle persane, in the supplement to Le Figaro, July 14, 1906
- View the full text. [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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2023-05-04
Line count: 4
Word count: 22

The moon, gentle silver lute

Language: English after the French (Français)

Chosen for Diff

The moon, gentle silver lute, 
whose white beams are its strings, 
with my sad and wayward heart, 
Allah, you sweetly attune.

About the headline (FAQ)

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, no title, appears in En Orient, in 1. Les Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, in 1. Les amours, in 1. L'Amour de la Femme, no. 87
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-08-29
Line count: 4
Word count: 21