I love to watch, while you are lazing,

Dear indolent, I love to see,

Your skin. It iridesces

In your body bright,

Like silk or satin, smoothly-glazing

How like shimmering silk the skin

The light that it caresses.

Reflects the light !

Under your tresses dark and deep

On the deep ocean of your hair

Where acrid perfumes drown,

Where perfume laves,

A fragrant sea whose breakers sweep

Odorous and vagabond sea

In mazes blue or brown,

Of blue and brown waves,

My soul, a ship, to the attraction

Like a vessel awakening

Of breezes that bedizen

When morning winds rise

Its swelling canvas, clears for action

My dreaming soul begins to sail

And seeks a far horizon.

Toward remote skies.

Your eyes where nothing can be seen

Your two eyes that neither sweetness

Either of sweet or bitter

Nor bitterness hold

But gold and iron mix their sheen,

Are two chilly gems mingled of

Seem frosty gems that glitter.

Iron and gold.

To see you rhythmically advancing

When you walk in rhythm, lovely

Seems to my fancy fond

With abandonment,

As if it were a serpent dancing

You seem to be swayed by a wand,

Waved by the charmer's wand.

A dancing serpent.

Under the languorous moods that weigh it,

Your child's head under the burden

Your childish head bows down:

Of your indolence

Like a young elephant's you sway it

Sways as delicately as a

With motions soft as down.

Young elephant's,

Your body leans upon the hips

And your body bends and straightens

Like a fine ship that Iaves

Like a slender ship

Its hull from side to side, and dips

That, plunging and rolling, lets the

Its yards into the waves.

Yards in water dip.

When, as by glaciers ground, the spate

When, like a stream by thawing of

Swells hissing from beneath,

Glaciers made replete,

The water of your mouth, elate,

The water of your mouth rises

Rises between your teeth —

Up to your teeth,

It seems some old Bohemian vintage

I drink a Bohemian wine,

Triumphant, fierce, and tart,

Powerful and tart,

A liquid heaven that showers a mintage

A liquid sky that sows its stars

Of stars across my heart.

Within my heart !