The wine with its grace <br />purifies my grief. <br />When in bed, the two candlesticks <br />are the flames of your very eyes. <br />I fetch down a cloud as a pillow, <br />the sky I lower as my coverlet. <br /> <br />Bare bosom you entered my dream <br />(no, it’s not a dream, I said) Aphrodite <br />then you pull me up to dance with, <br />young for ever, vertical and horizontal; <br />in the end you award me a price, <br />the fragrant juice of your beauty, <br />to get me drunk on your other table. <br /> <br />Let it go, let this world pass and go, <br />all sensible but ignorant men, who live on <br />vinegar and dry bread holding a compass; <br />let us dream alone what they cannot. <br />Here, a jar of pure wine of love <br />opens wide the gate of the space, <br />and the spout to flow chaste honey <br />and purling water, a life transparent, <br />which the others cannot discover <br />in the vaporous glory of their life.<br /><br />Joseph S. Josephides<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/aphrodite-and-li-bai/
