Sonnet (I Built in My Fancy), Poem by Charles Cros

I built in my fancy
A theater with varied sets:
— Magic palaces, great green woods —
To perform my poetry there.

A little too haphazardly chosen,
The young lead actress, all awry,
Sometimes recites my verses.
For want of better, I am enraptured.

And I declaim with such art
That one would think me smitten by her paint,
By the paint I put on her myself.

No. Beneath the false virginal air
I see the inept and venal being,
But it is only the role I love.

Charles Cros

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

Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/poem-sonnet-i-built-in-my-fancy-charles-cros/