by
Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955)
La lumière lointaine
Language: French (Français) after the Arabic (العربية)
Cette larme est tombée d’un astre, ô Aziza,
elle brille au sommet de la colline qui abrite ta demeure.
O Aziza, toi-même torche éblouissante qui illumines ma nuit !
O Aziza impétueuse, cette goutte de feu au sommet de la colline,
je la contemple, et je pense.
Toute l'odeur du désert monte d'une caravane
accroupie sur la place des citernes,
et une flûte sauvage fait rêver les chameliers.
Je m'endormirai, le visage tourné vers cette lumière
qui brille au sommet de la colline,
comme un voyageur attend l'aube pour apercevoir un lieu vénéré.
Confirmed with La Revue de Paris, Paris: Bureau de la Revue de Paris, 1910, page 878.
Text Authorship:
Based on:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "Distant Light", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Grant Hicks
[Guest Editor] , Joost van der Linden
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website: 2024-11-25
Line count: 11
Word count: 92
Distant Light
Language: English after the French (Français)
This tear is fallen from a star, O Aziza,
it glistens at the top of the hill that shelters your abode.
O Aziza, yourself a dazzling torch that lights my night!
O impetuous Aziza, that droplet of fire at the top of the hill,
I gaze at it and I ponder.
All the fragrance of the desert rises from a caravan
that crouches at the place of the cisterns,
and a wild flute stirs the camel-drivers' dreams.
I will go to sleep, my face turned to that light
that glistens at the top of the hill,
as a traveler waits for dawn to glimpse a sacred place.
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:
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2026-02-26
Line count: 11
Word count: 107
