If I had, beneath my mantilla

Poem by Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly Collection PoussièresPeriod 19th century

If I had, beneath my mantilla,
That flaxen-gray eye,
And that slender ankle
In my slender brodequin;

If I had your soft languor,
Your golden hair,
Falling in a double braid
Down to my arched reins!

If I had, O my thought,
In my white corset,
Your blond shoulder iridescent
With a sparkling down!

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In short, if I seemed made
To lay down the law,
I would be a coquette
Even more coquettish than you!

I would like to be a queen
Proud as a peacock,
Whom one would have great trouble
To kiss the tip of her glove.

I would not be one of those,
Half cold,
Who, at first, play the cruel ones,
And then afterward take pity.

I would be a tigress,
Rebellious to loves,
Hiding the treacherous claw
In my velvet paw!
I would make souls suffer
A thousand pleasant torments,
And I would avenge women
For all their rascal lovers;

And without the fan that hides
Two beautiful mocking eyes,
I would laugh, at their mustache,
At their flame and their tears;

And I would spend my life
Driving them to despair,
And I would be so pretty
That they would have to love me!

And then, if the desire to love
One day took me,
I would have no fancy
Except for the one who would say:

“If like you I were made
To lay down the law,
I would be a coquette,
Even more coquettish than you!”

Love me then, my Paulette,
O my blond treasure!
To love a fop? you, coquette!
It will be to love you still!

Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

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