(Baudelaire)


dear child, dearest sister,
come with me now,
think of the pleasure
living together,
loving at will
in a country after
your own measure
all our years;
come to my call:
sunlight splashing
turbulent skies
has for me
a mystery
like your eyes
glinting with tears 
treacherously.


we will live there together
enjoying beauty, richness, calm, pleasure.


smoothly polished
beds and chairs
glowing with years
will furnish our rooms,
blended odours
of rare flowers,
faint elusive
sheen of amber,
cool perfumes,
lofty ceilings
depthless mirrors
sculpted mouldings,
oriental splendour:
sweet voices each
whispering our inmost
confidential secret speech.


living there together
in beauty, order, calm, pleasure.


see in the harbour
great ships sleeping,
wanderlust forgotten;
they bring to you
from near and far
treasures for
your fickle humour,
your lightest wish;
the sun setting,
painting the pasture,
tinting in hyacinth and gold
house and field
town and river,
the world now lapped 
in warmth and slumber.


living together
in beauty, richness, order, calm, pleasure.