A Sunstroke

Poem by Guy De Maupassant Period 19th century

It was in the month of June. All seemed to celebrate.
The crowd went by, noisy and carefree.
I hardly know why I too was happy;
That noise, like a drunkenness, had troubled my head.
The sun stirred the powers of the body,
It entered whole into the depths of my being,
And I felt seething within me those transports
That the first sun in Adam’s heart brought to birth.
A woman passed; she looked at me.
I do not know what fire her eye shot at me,
With what passion my soul was seized,
But suddenly there came to me like a frenzy
To throw myself upon her, a furious desire
To clasp her in my arms and kiss her mouth!
A cloud of blood, red, covered my eyes,
And I thought I pressed her in a savage kiss.
I held her, I bent her, throwing her back.
Then, lifting her suddenly with a powerful effort,
I kicked off the earth with my foot, and into space
Streaming with sunlight, in one bound, I carried her off.
We went through the sky, body to body, face to face.
And I, always, toward the burning star, climbed,
Pressing her to my breast with an embrace so strong
That in my clenched arms I saw that she was dead…

Guy de Maupassant

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