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The Ideal It will never be those theater beauties,
Corrupt products of a worthless century,
Those feet shod in buskins, those fingers holding castanets,
Who will satisfy a heart like my own.
I leave to Gavarni, the poet of chlorosis,
His babbling flock of hospital beauties,
For I cannot find among those pale roses
A flower that ressembles my red ideal.
What this heart, as deep as an abyss, needs
Is you, Lady Macbeth, a soul powerful in crime,
A dream of Aeschylus blooming in a climate of south winds;
Or rather you, great Night, daughter of Michelangelo,
Who peacefully twists into a strange pose
Those feminine charms fashioned in the mouths of the Titans!
Original French
(All translations by Cat Nilan © 1999, 2004) |