Le Jardin des Versets — The Garden of Verses

Welcome to the Garden of Verses. This site offers a new French translation of the Qur’an — the Recitation — my own, and personal. I was never at ease with the French translations of the Recitation, nor with the use made of them. So I set to work and wrote one that speaks to my heart. I did not set out to be original, yet in many places I part company with the accepted French translations. If you would like to know more about my choices as a translator, the foreword sets them out.

A word for visitors who read little or no French: the verse pages have not been translated into any other language. The Arabic text and its recitation, however, are there verse by verse throughout the site.

If you have remarks, suggestions or criticisms to send me, whether about the translation or about the site, you will find a contact link on the main page and on the foreword page.

To read the translation, you will find a version by surah, another by chapter and a last one by period of revelation. Each exists in bilingual form or in French alone. On the bilingual pages, an audio player lets you hear each verse, recited by a carefully chosen reciter.

At the foot of the main page a parterre opens, where each flower leads to a page. The first gathers the words of the Family of the Prophet — the Nahj al-balâgha of Mawlânâ 'Alî and other works. The second brings together the collections of supplications; the third, the collections of hadith from the Sunni and Twelver traditions; the fourth, the great chronicles of the classical historians; the fifth, the encyclopaedias of traditional learning. Then come the dictionaries of the Arabic language, among them those I cite in the foreword; then the search, which takes you to any verse in both languages; and lastly a quiz, to test and strengthen your knowledge of the Book.

The works are presented in their original language, without further translation.

This way to the main page: