The Dancing Serpent

  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!