Long since, I lived beneath vast porticoes,

For a long time I dwelt under vast porticos

By many ocean-sunsets tinged and fired,

Which the ocean suns lit with a thousand colors,

Where mighty pillars, in majestic rows,

The pillars of which, tall, straight, and majestic,

Seemed like basaltic caves when day expired.

Made them, in the evening, like basaltic grottos.

The rolling surge that mirrored all the skies

The billows which cradled the image of the sky

Mingled its music, turbulent and rich,

Mingled, in a solemn, mystical way,

Solemn and mystic, with the colours which

The omnipotent chords of their rich harmonies

The setting sun reflected in my eyes.

With the sunsets' colors reflected in my eyes;

And there I lived amid voluptuous calms,

It was there that I lived in voluptuous calm,

In splendours of blue sky and wandering wave,

In splendor, between the azure and the sea,

Tended by many a naked, perfumed slave,

And I was attended by slaves, naked, perfumed,

Who fanned my languid brow with waving palms.

Who fanned my brow with fronds of palms

They were my slaves — the only care they had

And whose sole task it was to fathom

To know what secret grief had made me sad.

The dolorous secret that made me pine away.