Indolent darling, how I love

I love to watch, while you are lazing,

To see the skin

Your skin. It iridesces

Of your body so beautiful

Like silk or satin, smoothly-glazing

Shimmer like silk!

The light that it caresses.

Upon your heavy head of hair

Under your tresses dark and deep

With its acrid scents,

Where acrid perfumes drown,

Adventurous, odorant sea

A fragrant sea whose breakers sweep

With blue and brown waves,

In mazes blue or brown,

Like a vessel that awakens

My soul, a ship, to the attraction

To the morning wind,

Of breezes that bedizen

My dreamy soul sets sail

Its swelling canvas, clears for action

For a distant sky.

And seeks a far horizon.

Your eyes where nothing is revealed

Your eyes where nothing can be seen

Of bitter or sweet,

Either of sweet or bitter

Are two cold jewels where are mingled

But gold and iron mix their sheen,

Iron and gold.

Seem frosty gems that glitter.

To see you walking in cadence

To see you rhythmically advancing

With fine abandon,

Seems to my fancy fond

One would say a snake which dances

As if it were a serpent dancing

On the end of a staff.

Waved by the charmer's wand.

Under the weight of indolence

Under the languorous moods that weigh it,

Your child-like head sways

Your childish head bows down:

Gently to and fro like the head

Like a young elephant's you sway it

Of a young elephant,

With motions soft as down.

And your body stretches and leans

Your body leans upon the hips

Like a slender ship

Like a fine ship that Iaves

That rolls from side to side and dips

Its hull from side to side, and dips

Its yards in the sea.

Its yards into the waves.

Like a stream swollen by the thaw

When, as by glaciers ground, the spate

Of rumbling glaciers,

Swells hissing from beneath,

When the water of your mouth rises

The water of your mouth, elate,

To the edge of your teeth,

Rises between your teeth —

It seems I drink Bohemian wine,

It seems some old Bohemian vintage

Bitter and conquering,

Triumphant, fierce, and tart,

A liquid sky that scatters

A liquid heaven that showers a mintage

Stars in my heart!

Of stars across my heart.