by Jules de Lau-Lusignan (b. 1816)
Translation Singable translation by Samuel Byrne (flourished 1889)

Chanson arabe
Language: French (Français) 
Voyageur, laisse le doux rêve
Où tu vois passer les houris;
Car déjà le simoun soulève
Les sables à l'horizon gris.
Fuyez les brûlantes haleines,
Hâtez-vous, jeunes chameliers,
Car Elim a douze fontaines
Avec soixante-dix palmiers.

Zorah, jadis, à la gazelle
Avait, dit-on, volé ses yeux
Et sa voix à la tourterelle,
Bien longs étaient ses noirs cheveux.
Chacun voulait porter ses chaînes,
Mais nul ne savait la charmer.
Elim a ses douze fontaines
Avec soixante-dix palmiers.

Pourtant de la terre étrangère
Un beau cavalier vint un jour;
De Zorah, jusqu'alors si fière,
Le coeur tressaillit à son tour.
La brise en soufflant sur les plaines,
Le soir près d'eux vint murmurer: 
Elim a ses douze fontaines
Avec soixante-dix palmiers.

Text Authorship:

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 [singable] (Samuel Byrne) , "Arabian song"


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 120

Arabian song
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
Trav'ler, cease your amorous dreams
Of houris with their charming eyes;
The simoon already is lifting
Hot sand-clouds in the distance gray.
Oh! fly the hot breath of the desert;
Camel-drivers, hasten away;
For Elim has a dozen fountains
And full seventy lofty palms.

Zorah, it was whisper'd, had stolen
From the gazelle her lovely eyes,
And her voice from the dove so gentle,
Dark and long was her well-kept hair,
Each one would like to be her slave,
But no one there could capture her heart.
For Elim has a dozen fountains
And full seventy lofty palms.

From a land that was very distant
Came a knight, handsome, tall, one day;
And her heart, hitherto so frigid,
Quickly beat when she looked at him.
The breeze o'er the plains gently blowing,
At night in their ears softly said:
For Elim has a dozen fountains
And full seventy lofty palms.

From the Lavigne score.

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):

    [ None yet in the database ]


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 150