Giraud was born Emile Albert Kayenbergh in
Leuven, Belgium. He studied law at the
University of Leuven. He left university without a degree and took up journalism and poetry. In 1885, Giraud became a member of
La Jeune Belgique, a Belgian nationalist literary movement that met at the Café Sésino in Brussels. Giraud became chief librarian at the Belgian Ministry of the Interior. He was a
Symbolist poet. His published works include
Pierrot lunaire: Rondels bergamasques (1884), a poem cycle based on the
commedia dell'arte figure of
Pierrot, and
La Guirlande des Dieux (1910). The composer
Arnold Schönberg set a German-language version (translated by
Otto Erich Hartleben) of selections from his
Pierrot Lunaire to innovative
atonal music. In a different, late romantic style, some of Hartleben's translations found their way into the vocal works of
Joseph Marx. ==Works==