Mother of memories, mistress of mistresses, <br />O you, all my pleasures! O you, all my learning! <br />You will remember the joy of caresses, <br />the sweetness of home and the beauty of evening, <br />Mother of memories, mistress of mistresses! <br /> <br />On evenings lit by the glow of the ashes <br />and on the balcony, veiled, rose-coloured, misted, <br />how gentle your breast was, how good your heart to me! <br />We have said things meant for eternity, <br />on evenings lit by the glow of the ashes. <br /> <br />How lovely the light is on sultry evenings! <br />How deep the void grows! How powerful the heart is! <br />As I leaned towards you, queen of adored ones <br />I thought I breathed perfume from your blood’s kiss. <br />How lovely the light is on sultry evenings! <br /> <br />The night it was thickening and closing around us, <br />and my eyes in the dark were divining your glance, <br />and I drank your nectar. Oh sweetness! Oh poison! <br />your feet held, here, in these fraternal hands. <br />The night it was thickening and closing around us. <br /> <br />I know how to summon up happiest moments, <br />and relive my past, there, curled, touching your knees. <br />What good to search for your languorous beauties <br />but in your dear body, and your heart so sweet? <br />I know how to summon up happiest moments! <br /> <br />Those vows, those perfumes, those infinite kisses, <br />will they be reborn, from gulfs beyond soundings, <br />as the suns that are young again climb in the sky, <br />after they’ve passed through the deepest of drownings? <br />-O vows! O perfumes! O infinite kisses<br /><br />Charles Baudelaire<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-balcony/
