The Young Nightingale of Grenada

You are a young nightingale of Grenada,
A warbler with a honeyed voice,
A pink turtle-dove,
A lady cat sweet as sugar,
A female cheetah high on her heels,
A soaring leopardess,
A she- jaguar of fire,
A lioness of the sea,
A tigress like a volcano,
A panther of steel,
Yes, a wild panther
Whom I, having penetrated
With my fiery sword,
Transformed into a beautiful doe
With lake-dwelling eyes
And a sinuous figure.


When the chroniclers of the present century
Tell your story,
They will say that you were a lonely rose
Which grew to one side
In some place where thistles grow
And that, although born to a cruel race,
You were sweetness itself
And blessed with a peace dreamed of only
By Saint Francis of Assisi!


And what is more, your womb is an ocean
Spangled with love fish, orange or blue,
Spikenard urchins,
Knightly seahorses,
Cuttlefish whose ink is poems,
Stars in flame,
aeroliths of rubies,
Comets of topaz
And meteorites of sapphire!

FROM THE COLLECTION OF POEMS "LE SACRE DE L'ULTIME MAURE"

PUBLISHED IN FRANCE BY
ENCRES VIVES.