The Pagan's Prayer, Poem by Charles Baudelaire

Ah! do not slow your flames;
Warm my numbed heart,
Voluptuousness, torture of souls!
Diva! supplicem exaudi!

Goddess spread through the air,
Flame in our subterranean place!
Answer a sullen soul,
That consecrates to you a song of brass.

Voluptuousness, always be my queen!
Take the mask of a siren
Made of flesh and velvet,

Or pour into me your heavy sleeps
In the formless and mystic wine,
Voluptuousness, elastic phantom!

Charles Baudelaire

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-the-pagans-prayer-charles-baudelaire/