For a long time I dwelt under vast porticos

I can remember a country of long, high colonnades

Which the ocean suns lit with a thousand colors,

Which mirrored in their pale marble the prismatic light

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

Cast from the bright sea billows in a thousand shades,

Made them, in the evening, like basaltic grottos.

And which resembled a cave of fluted basalt by night.

The billows which cradled the image of the sky

The ocean, strewn with sliding images of the sky,

Mingled, in a solemn, mystical way,

Would mingle in a mysterious and solemn way,

The omnipotent chords of their rich harmonies

Under the wild brief sunsets, its tremendous cry

With the sunsets' colors reflected in my eyes;

With the reflected colors of the ruined day.

It was there that I lived in voluptuous calm,

There did I dwell in quiet luxury apart,

In splendor, between the azure and the sea,

Amid the slowly changing hues of clouds and waves;

And I was attended by slaves, naked, perfumed,

And there I was attended by two naked slaves

Who fanned my brow with fronds of palms

Who sometimes fanned me with great fronds on either side,

And whose sole task it was to fathom

And whose sole task was to let sink into my heart

The dolorous secret that made me pine away.

The dolorous and beautiful secret of which I died.