Damned Women

Lying on the sand like ruminating cattle,

They turn their eyes toward the horizon of the sea,

And their clasped hands and their feet which seek the other's

Know both sweet languor and shudders of pain.

Some, whose hearts grew amorous from long confessions,

In the depth of the woods, among the babbling brooks,

Spell out the love of their timid adolescence

By carving the green wood of young saplings;

Others, like sisters, walk gravely and with slow steps

Among the high rocks peopled with apparitions,

Where Saint Anthony saw the naked, purple breasts

Of his temptations rise up like lava;

There are some who by the light of crumbling resin

In the silent void of the old pagan caverns

Call out for help from their screaming fevers to you

O Bacchus, who lull to sleep the ancient remorse!

And others, whose breasts love the feel of scapulars,

Who, concealing a whip under their long habits,

Mingle, in the dark woods and solitary nights,

The froth of pleasure with tears of torment.

O virgins, O demons, O monsters, O martyrs,

Great spirits, contemptuous of reality,

Seekers of the infinite, pious and satyric,

Sometimes full of cries, sometimes full of tears,

You whom my spirit has followed into your hell,

Poor sisters, I love you as much as I pity you,

For your gloomy sorrows, your unsatisfied thirsts,

And the urns of love with which your great hearts are filled!