by
Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)
Le destin
Language: French (Français)
L'amour de la femme est l'ombre d'une palme sur le sable.
L'amour de l'homme est le seul simoûn
qui puisse briser cette palme et fixer ainsi son ombre.
Messaouda ! dans la nuit de ton sépulcre
souviens-toi du jardin solitaire
où je t'ai conduite,, un jour.
C'était un jardin entre des murailles si hautes,
que les cimes de ses arbres ne les depassaient point.
C'était un jardin serti dans des murailles blanches,
comme une émeraude cachée dans une fleur de magnolia.
Messaouda ! souviens-toi du matin paisible
où tu t'es courbée sous mon amour,
comme une palme sous le simoûn.
Mais, à force de souffler,
le simoûn recouvre de sable le rameau qu'il a brisé.
Ô ma longue palme,
que le sable du cimetière soit léger sur ton sépulcre.
Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, Le jardin des caresses, Paris, H. Piazza, 1921, pages 18-19.
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Louis Aubert (1877 - 1968), "Le destin", 1917, published 1917 [ medium voice and piano or orchestra ], from Six poèmes arabes, no. 6, Paris, Édition Durand [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Vincenzo Tommasini (1878 - 1950), "Le destin", 1919 [ voice and piano ], from Cinq mélodies, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "Destiny", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust
[Administrator] , Grant Hicks
[Guest Editor] , Joost van der Linden
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website: 2022-05-02
Line count: 17
Word count: 127
Destiny
Language: English after the French (Français)
A woman's love is the shadow of a palm tree on the sand.
A man's love is the only simoom
that can snap that palm and so pin down its shadow.
Messaouda! in the night of your tomb
remember the solitary garden
where I led you, one day!
It was a garden between walls so high
that the crowns of its trees did not overtop them.
It was a garden set within white walls,
like an emerald hidden within a magnolia blossom.
Messaouda! remember the peaceful morning
when you were bent beneath my love,
like a palm tree beneath the simoom.
But, by dint of blowing,
The simoom covers with sand the branch it has broken.
O my tall palm tree,
May the sand of the cemetery lie light upon your tomb.
Note for line 2, "simoom": a hot, dry, sometimes deadly wind that blows in the Sahara and desert areas of the Near East. Its name comes from an Arabic root meaning "poison."
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:
This text was added to the website: 2026-03-16
Line count: 17
Word count: 132
