In the Desert | The head of an old sheikh bleeds at the point of a lance

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

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Au désert

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

La tête d'un vieux cheik saigne en haut d'une lance ;
Au-dessus du désert plane un vautour qui fuit ;
Et morte aussi, la lune au ciel monte en silence,
Souriant à ce mort oublié dans la nuit.

Confirmed with Jean Lahor, L'Illusion, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1888, Page 164.

Note: in line 1, Rhené-Baton spells "cheik" as "scheikh".

Text Authorship:

by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor, "Au désert", appears in L'Illusion, in 3. La gloire du néant, no. 6, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre [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):

by René-Emmanuel Baton (1879 - 1940), as Rhené-Baton, "Au désert", op. 16 no. 3 (1906), published 1912 [ medium voice and piano ], from Cinq mélodies sur des poèmes de Jean Lahor, no. 3, Paris, Éd. Durand [sung text checked 1 time]
by Jeanne Bernard (1895 - 1965), "Au désert", published [1920] [ voice and piano ], Paris, Ch. Hayet [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "In the Desert", copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Paul Hindemith

This text was added to the website: 2009-09-17
Line count: 4
Word count: 36

In the Desert

Language: English after the French (Français)

The head of an old sheikh bleeds at the point of a lance;
Over the desert soars a fleeing vulture;
And, also dead, the moon in the sky rises silently,
Smiling at this dead man forgotten in the night.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 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, "Au désert", appears in L'Illusion, in 3. La gloire du néant, no. 6, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-06-16
Line count: 4
Word count: 39