O fleece, that down the neck waves to the nape! <br />O curls! O perfume nonchalant and rare! <br />O ecstasy! To fill this alcove shape <br />With memories that in these tresses sleep, <br />I would shake them like penions in the air! <br /> <br />Languorous Asia, burning Africa, <br />And a far world, defunct almost, absent, <br />Within your aromatic forest stay! <br />As other souls on music drift away, <br />Mine, O my love! still floats upon your scent. <br /> <br />I shall go there where, full of sap, both tree <br />And man swoon in the heat of the southern climates; <br />Strong tresses be the swell that carries me! <br />I dream upon your sea of amber <br />Of dazzling sails, of oarsmen, masts, and flames: <br /> <br />A sun-drenched and reverberating port, <br />Where I imbibe colour and sound and scent; <br />Where vessels, gliding through the gold and moiré, <br />Open their vast arms as they leave the shore <br />To clasp the pure and shimmering firmament. <br /> <br />I'll plunge my head, enamored of its pleasure, <br />In this black ocean where the other hides; <br />My subtle spirit then will know a measure <br />Of fertile idleness and fragrant leisure, <br />Lulled by the infinite rhythm of its tides! <br /> <br />Pavilion, of autumn-shadowed tresses spun, <br />You give me back the azure from afar; <br />And where the twisted locks are fringed with down <br />Lurk mingled odors I grow drunk upon <br />Of oil of coconut, of musk, and tar. <br /> <br />A long time! always! my hand in your hair <br />Will sow the stars of sapphire, pearl, ruby, <br />That you be never deaf to my desire, <br />My oasis and my gourd whence I aspire <br />To drink deep of the wine of memory.<br /><br />Charles Baudelaire<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/her-hair/
