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Mets mon front sur ton sein, mets ta main sur mes yeux : [Oh !]1 cache-moi la mort, et cache-moi la vie ! Rien au monde que toi, rien ne faisant envie A mon cœur caressé par ton toucher soyeux.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text without footnotesConfirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor. En Orient, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1907, page 22.
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.
1 Moret: "Ah !"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. 23 [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), "Aimons-nous et rêvons", op. 40 no. 5, published 1915 [ high voice and piano ], from Quatrains d'Al-Ghazali, no. 5, London, Augener
Score: IMSLP [external link] - by Ernest Moret (1871 - 1949), "Aimons-nous et rêvons", published 1919 [ high voice and piano ], from Sous le ciel de l'Islam, no. 11, Paris, Éd. Heugel
Score: IMSLP [external link]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2023-05-03
Line count: 4
Word count: 39
Place my brow on your breast, place your hand over my eyes: [Oh!]1 hide death from me, and hide life from me! Nothing in the world but you, nothing to tempt My heart caressed by your silken touch.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text without footnotes1 Moret: "Ah !"
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:
- 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. 23
This text was added to the website: 2026-08-26
Line count: 4
Word count: 39