The Birth of Marisol

You appeared like a dream
which came through the gate of horn,
the gate of true dreams,
as opposed to the gate of ivory,
which is the gate of false dreams!

At your birth, a radiant sun
shone through the saffron skies
and saw itself reflected in the Mexican lake
of your face
which thus took on huge dimensions,
resembling
a head of Berenice,
as she appeared
on ancient coins,
or a celestial sphere,
such as those invoked in the oracles!

O Marisol, Mary of the Sun,
you were born at the very moment
when summer leaves the sign of the Lion
and moves towards the constellation of the Virgin!
Born then just after
the Assumption of Mary,
in my mind and my heart you remained
essentially a virgin,
even though you’d known men
and even though your vagina had received
the phallus
and you’d blossomed several times
under the effect of love’s ecstasy
like a good Mexican girl,
never ignorant of matters of the flesh
and fully aware
of the importance of pleasure
in a woman’s life!

Yet, in the few intimate encounters
I’ve had with you,
you always seemed to me like a child
quite astonished to be alive,
yes, like a very young virgin,
a shy maiden
frightened by the breeze
or the trembling of the leaves
and anxious when a boy looks at you!

O Marisol,
your soul stayed pure of all stain
like a jet of water
whose stream has never been muddied!

FROM THE COLLECTION OF POEMS "LE TRIOMPHE DE MARISOL"

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THEO CRASSAS
BY NORTON HODGES ON SEPT. THE 14TH, 2014
COLLECTION OF POEMS PUBLISHED BY ENCRES VIVES