I will not seek ever to understand you

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

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Je ne chercherai pas à te jamais...

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: DUT ENG

Chosen for Diff

Je ne chercherai pas à te jamais comprendre,
Je ne chercherai pas à savoir si tu mens,
Pourvu que ton regard ou ta voix me soit tendre,
Pourvu que tes deux bras me soient toujours aimants.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 63.

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. 102, 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), "Je ne chercherai pas", op. 40 no. 4, published 1915 [ high voice and piano ], from Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, no. 4, London, Augener
Score: IMSLP [external link]
- View the full text. [sung text checked 1 time]
by Ernest Moret (1871 - 1949), "Que m'importe ! Je t'aime...", published 1921 [ medium voice and piano ], from Trois mélodies [1921], no. 2, Paris, Éd. 'Au Ménestrel' Heugel
- View the full text. [sung text not yet checked]

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

DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Joost van der Linden) , "Ik ben er niet op uit", 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: 36

I will not seek ever to understand you

Language: English after the French (Français)

Chosen for Diff

I will not seek ever to understand you,
I will not seek to know if you are lying,
As long as your gaze and your voice are sweet to me,
As long as your embrace is always loving.

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. 102, 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: 38