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Antique
Translated by Holly Tannen

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Gracious son of Pan! Around your forehead crowned with flowerets and laurel, roll those precious balls, your eyes. Your hollow cheeks are stained with wine. Your fangs gleam. Your breast is like a lyre, tinkling sounds around your blond arms. Your heart beats in that belly where sleeps the double sex. Walk through the night, softly moving that thigh, that second thigh, and that left leg.

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Gracieux fils de Pan! Autour de ton front couronné de fleurettes et de baies, tes yeux, des boules précieuses, remuent. Tachées de lie brune, tes joues se creusent. Tes crocs luisent. Ta poitrine ressemble à une cithare, des tintements circulent dans tes bras blonds. Ton coeur bat dans le ventre où dort le double sexe. Promène-toi, la nuit, en mouvant doucement cette cuisse, cette seconde cuisse et cette jambe de gauche.

Rimbaud by Jean-Louis Forain circa 1871
Rimbaud painting Verlaine
a sketch by Jean-Louis Forain circa 1871
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     Holly Tannen teaches folklore and anthropology, and has lectured on contemporary magic at U.C. Berkeley and at Yale University. Her recordings include "Invocation", "Between the Worlds", and "Rime of the Ancient Matriarch"


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Michael Potts, webster updated 21 June 2001 : 9:29 Caspar (Pacific) time

All text, translations, and songs copyright © 2001-2004 by Holly Tannen