“ When I grasp hold of your hair, I’m in hell,
And those who dwell in heaven I despise,
As if my heart were brought to heaven’s meadow
But found that field too tight for it, too narrow.

“ My body is a dead language
and you pronounce
each word perfectly

“ With that he stripp’d him to his ivory skin,
And crying, “Love, I come,” leapt lively in.
Where the sapphire-visag’d god grew proud
And made his capering Triton sound aloud,
Imagining that Ganymede, displeas’d,
Had left the heavens…
The lusty god embrac’d him, called him love,
And swore he never should return to Jove.

He watch’d his arms, and as they open’d wide
At every stroke, betwixt them would he slide
And steal a kiss, and then run out and dance
And as he swam cast many a lustful glance,
And through him gaudy toys to please his eye,
And dive into the water, and there pry
Upon his breast, his thighs, and every limb,
And up again, and close behind him swim.

“ Like the sweet apple that reddens
At the end of the bough
Left by the gathering’s swaying,
Forgotten, so thou.
Nay, not forgotten, ungotten,
Ungathered (until now).

“ You glow like a perfumed lamp
In the gathering shadows.
We play wine games
And recite each other’s poems.
Then you sing `Remembering South of the River’
With its heart breaking verses. Then
We paint each other’s beautiful eyebrows.
I want to possess you completely -
Your jade body
And your promised heart.
It is Spring.
Vast mists cover the Five Lakes.
My dear, let me buy a red painted boat
And carry you away.

“ I called to you
Filled your mouth with plenty
Girls, fine gifts
Lovesong, the keen-toned harp
An old woman’s flesh
Hair that used to be black
Knees that will not hold
Stand like dappled fawns
But what can I do?

No longer able to begin again
Rosy-armed dawn
Bearing to the ends of the earth
Nevertheless seized the cherished wife
Withering is common to all
May that girl come and be my lover
I have loved all graceful things and this
Eros has given me, beauty and the light of the sun.

“ Whatever it may be your lad asks of you,
Do not refuse. Love gains by what love yields.
Go where he goes - a thousand miles or farther,
Under the August sun that burns the fields
Or under skies grown dark and heavy-clouded,
Marked with the colored bow that threatens rain.

“ Her soul a deep-wave pearl
Dim, lucent of all lovely mysteries;
A face flowered for heart’s ease,
A brow’s grace soft as seas
Seen through faint forest-trees:
A mouth, the lips apart,
Like aspen-leaflets trembling in the breeze
From her tempestuous heart.
Such: and our souls so knit,
I leave a page half-writ —
The work begun
Will be to heaven’s conception done,
If she come to it.

“ O Phileros, why a torch that we need not?
Just as we are we’ll go, our hearts aflame.
That flame no wild wind’s blast can ever quench,
Or rain that falls torrential from the skies;
Venus herself alone can quell her fire,
No other force there is that has such power.

“ Peer of the gods is that man, who
Face to face, sits listening
To your sweet speech and lovely
Laughter.

It is this that rouses a tumult
In my breast. At mere sight of you
My voice falters, my tongue
Is broken.

Straightway, a delicate fire runs in
My limbs; my eyes
Are blinded and my ears
Thunder.

Sweat pours out: a trembling hunts
Me down. I grow paler
Than dry grass and lack little
Of dying.

“ This is the poem of the air,
Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
Now whispered and revealed
To wood and field.

“ Gazelle desired in Spain, wonderously formed,
Given rule and dominion over every living thing;
Lovely of form like the moon, with beautiful stature:
Curls of purple upon shining temple,
Like Joseph his form, like Adionah his hair.
Lovely of eyes like David, he has slain me like Uriah.
He has inflamed my passions and consumed my heart with fire.