Page:One of Cleopatra's nights, and Other Fantastic Romances.djvu/402

384 rire ctouffe as applied to the sounds made by the crocodile. "Je l'ai entendu souvent," he said, with a smile.

The idea of love after death has been introduced by Gautier into several beautiful creations, sometimes Hoffmanesquely, sometimes with an exquisite sweetness peculiarly his own. Among his most touching poems there is a fantastic—Les Tâches Jaunes—so remarkable that I cannot refrain from offering a rude translation of it. Though transplanted even by a master-hand into the richest soil of another language, such poetical flora necessarily lose something of their strange color and magical perfume. In this instance the translator, who is no poet, only strives to convey the beautiful weirdness of the original idea:

With elbow buried in the downy pillow
 * I've lain and read,

All through the night, a volume strangely written
 * In tongues long dead.

For at my bedside lie no dainty slippers;
 * And, save my own,

Under the paling lamp I hear no breathing:—
 * I am alone!

But there are yellow bruises on my body
 * And violet stains;

Though no white vampire came with lips blood-crimsoned
 * To suck my veins!