EROS
by: Pierre Louÿs (1870-1925)
- "EEP
in the lurking shadows of the woods,
- Down vistas gold-flecked from the sunlight glare
- The Satyrs fast pursue the Oreads.
- Clutching their virgin breasts and flying hair,
- Bending their gleaming bodies, tense with fear,
- Swift backward on the damp moss. Half divine,
- Writing with pain....
- O Women!
- On your soft lips, Eros cries
- Desires and agonies."
- "Eros! Eros!"
-
- "Cybele long pursues across the plains
- The godlike Attis whom her love desires,
- The fleeting Attis who her love disdains
- For Eros, like a cruel god, conspires
- To chill return where burning love aspires,
- And, in despair, through Attis halting breath,
- Cybele weaves of death....
- Slaying with tortured cries,
- Desires and agonies...."
- "Eros! Eros!"
-
- "Before the Goat-foot, over the flowery meads--
- Toward the water tomb, frail Syrinx speeds,
- Shuddering at Eros' kiss upon her cheek--
- Eros who, later, culls the trembling reeds,
- Caresses them and, living, makes them speak
- For he who conquers Gods, who death disdains--
- Pale Eros--reigns....
- O women!
- From a dead soul, Eros cries
- Desires and agonies."
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY:
MITCHELL S. BUCK
"Eros" is reprinted from
Poetica Erotica. Ed. T.R. Smith. New York: Crown Publishers,
1921. |
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POEMS BY PIERRE LOUYS |
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