Eternal Regret
You are the apple tree that blossoms
in the garden of my life!
I'll never rest
in my love for you,
although I've found peace
in your shadow!
The seasons bring no other fruit
than the apple of your love!
My love is unutterably sad,
yet, I only know joy
when I sing your praise!
Then my joy knows no limits
so much does it annoy the enemies of joy,
those zealots of unhappiness,
who resent seeing my shameless bliss!
According to these birds
of ill omen,
Christians must not allow themselves
the least _expression of pleasure
because Jesus died on the cross!
But I say that Christ
was crucified
because he offered
the men and women of Judea
supreme happiness of soul
through the worship of beauty
wedded to love,
the foundation of his teaching!
And in whom can this beauty be found?
Above all other human beauty, you'll find it in
the eyes, the hair, the breasts
and the hips of young women!
You are the plane tree
with lace-edged leaves
in my summer garden!
And in your décolletage
lies the fire of summer
and the white heat of harvest!
When I gather in your bosom it is
like the golden egg of the sun
in the sea of twilight!
And I breath in your shapely rear
like St John's
sixty petalled
rose!
Blessed in truth
are those inflamed by love
for they alone will savour
the delights of Paradise!
Yes, I am one of the impassioned
and although I haven't known
one good day in my life
I melt at the sight
of a young girl's lithe body
and I'm even more troubled
if she can sing like a nightingale
and dance like a deer!
The young girls of the earth
are symbols of the black-eyed houris!
And each time I see
a young girl,
I burn with nostalgia,
dreaming of her counterparts in heaven!
O my Beloved,
no one will ever see
your face as I see it
and enjoy it so immoderately!
For if I showed your face
to the people of that city
lost in the desert,
the jealous mob
would crucify us
on two different crosses,
facing each other,
in the Gethsemane
of eternal regrets!
FROM THE COLLECTION OF POEMS "LYS SAUVAGES"
PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED.
JANUARY 2005