Le serpent qui danse [English translation]

Indolent darling, how I love

To see the skin

Of your body so beautiful

Shimmer like silk!

Upon your heavy head of hair

With its acrid scents,

Adventurous, odorant sea

With blue and brown waves,

Like a vessel that awakens

To the morning wind,

My dreamy soul sets sail

For a distant sky.

Your eyes where nothing is revealed

Of bitter or sweet,

Are two cold jewels where are mingled

Iron and gold.

To see you walking in cadence

With fine abandon,

One would say a snake which dances

On the end of a staff.

Under the weight of indolence

Your child-like head sways

Gently to and fro like the head

Of a young elephant,

And your body stretches and leans

Like a slender ship

That rolls from side to side and dips

Its yards in the sea.

Like a stream swollen by the thaw

Of rumbling glaciers,

When the water of your mouth rises

To the edge of your teeth,

It seems I drink Bohemian wine,

Bitter and conquering,

A liquid sky that scatters

Stars in my heart!