The Dancing Snake
The Dancing Snake
My languid darling, how I love
To see the silken sheen,
When your body stretches and ripples
Your shimmering skin!
I breathe the tang of the ocean
In the deeps of your hair,
A shifting mass of blue and brown,
A sea itself and there,
Like a sleeping ship that awakens
As the morning breezes rise,
My dreaming soul casts off and sets
Its course for distant skies.
Your eyes that speak of nothing,
No sweet or bitter end,
Are two cold precious jewels
Where gold and iron blend.
The loose and lovely cadence,
The rhythm of your walk,
Is like a snake who dances
At the end of a stick.
And your body bends and stretches
Like a slim ship that braves
The sea it rolls and pitches,
With yards tipping the waves.
And when, like the glacier melting
To swell a mountain stream,
Saliva rises in your mouth
And brims your teeth, it seems
As if I drank Bohemian wine,
Tangy, invasive, tart,
A liquid sky that sends a rain
Of stardust on my heart!
Writer/s: Charles Baudelaire, Susanna Wallumrød
