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Am as lovely as a dream in stone,
And this my heart where each finds death in turn,
Inspires the poet with a love as lone
As clay eternal and as taciturn.

Swan-white of heart, a sphinx no mortal knows,...

When, by an edict of the powers supreme,
The Poet in this bored world comes to be,
His daunted mother, eager to blaspheme,
Rages to God, who looks down piteously:
...

Lorsque, par un d'cret des puissances supr'mes,
Le Po'te appara't en ce monde ennuy',
Sa m're 'pouvant'e et pleine de blasph'mes
Crispe ses poings vers Dieu, qui la prend en piti':
...

You can scorn more illustrious eyes,
sweet eyes of my child, through which there takes flight
something as good or as tender as night.
Turn to mine your charmed shadows, sweet eyes!
...

Beside a monstrous Jewish whore I lay
One night, we were two corpses side by side,
And came to dream beside this hired bride
Of beauty my desire had turned away.

I saw again her native majesty,...

Ere is the chamber consecrate,
Wherein this maiden delicate,
And enigmatically sedate,

Fans herself while the moments creep,
Upon her cushions half-asleep,
And hears the fountains plash and weep....

La tribu proph'tique aux prunelles ardentes
Hier s'est mise en route, emportant ses petits
Sur son dos, ou livrant ' leurs fiers app'tits
Le tr'sor toujours pr't des mamelles pendantes.
...

If on some woebegone night
A generous Christian soul
Behind an old garbage-dump, might
Drop your proud corpse in a hole,

When the chaste stars are nodding their heads...

Have patience, O my sorrow, and be still.
You asked for night: it falls: it is here.
A shadowy atmosphere enshrouds the hill,
to some men bringing peace, to others care.

While the vile human multitude...

Stiff scholars and the hody amorous
Will in their ripeness equally admire
Powerful, gende cats, pride of the house,
Who, like them, love to sit around the fire.

Friends both of sciences and of l'amour,...

Sous un grand ciel gris, dans une grande plaine poudreuse, sans
chemins, sans gazon, sans un chardon, sans une ortie, je rencontrai
plusieurs hommes qui marchaient courb's.
...

I

Bient't nous plongerons dans les froides t'n'bres;
Adieu vive clart' de nos 't's trop courts!
J'entends d'j' tomber avec des chocs fun'bres
Le bois retentissant sur le pav' des cours.
...

One would say your gaze was a misted screen:
your strange eyes (are they blue, grey or green?)
changeable, tender, dreamy, cruel, and again
echoing the indolence and pallor of heaven.
...

The Devil and I had a chat
This morning in my snuggery;
Trying to catch me in a lapse,
'Tell me', he said beseechingly,

'Among the many charming things
Of which her body is composed...

Like pensive cattle lying on the sands
They gaze upon the endless seas, until
Feet grope for feet, and hands close over hands,
In languid sweetness or with quivering chill.
...

Within the dwindling glow of light from languid lamps,
Sunk in the softest cushions soaked with heady scent,
Hippolyta lay dreaming of the thrilling touch
That spread apart the veil of her young innocence.
...

Once, once only, sweet and lovable woman,
you leant your smooth arm on mine
(that memory has never faded a moment
from the shadowy depths of my mind):


it was late: the full moon spread its light...

Une fois, une seule, aimable et douce femme,
A mon bras votre bras poli
S'appuya (sur le fond t'n'breux de mon 'me
Ce souvenir n'est point p'li);

Il 'tait tard ; ainsi qu'une m'daille neuve...

From this bizarre and livid sky
Tormented by your destiny,
Into your vacant spirit fly
What tho~ghts? respond, you libertine.

Voracious in my appetite
For the uncertain and unknown,...

Hou, O my Grief, be wise and tranquil still,
The eve is thine which even now drops down,
To carry peace or care to human will,
And in a misty veil enfolds the town.
...