When the wind makes the flutes of the reeds weep

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

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Quand le vent fait pleurer les flûtes...

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: DUT ENG

Chosen for Diff

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 ?

About the headline (FAQ)

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.

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. 53, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1907 [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 Blair Fairchild (1877 - 1933), "Heure pâle", op. 40 no. 7, published 1915 [ high voice and piano ], from Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, no. 7, London, Augener
Score: IMSLP [external link]
- View the full text. [sung text checked 1 time]

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

DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Joost van der Linden) , copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Johann Winkler

This text was added to the website: 2020-05-08
Line count: 4
Word count: 34

When the wind makes the flutes of the...

Language: English after the French (Français)

Chosen for Diff

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?

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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

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. 53, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1907
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-08-27
Line count: 4
Word count: 35