GUERDY JACQUES PRÉVAL

Chasseur de dames

 

 Give me this flower crushed between your girdle and your heart! I want

 it sad and colourless, give it to me, pale and wilted! Neither the

 rose, eternal fairy, nor the just-opened lily is worth the poor

 smothered blossom's last sigh. Sweet exchange that steals the

 soul. The woman has kept in her heart the flower's sweetest perfume,

 the flower, the woman's perfume.  I plucked this flower at your feet

 by the roadside. You held out your hand to me and asked me to give it

 to you, fresh and pretty. We told our secrets to these woods where the

 bird sighs. Dreaming, you sniffed it and the flower hid your smile!

 Sweet exchange that steals the soul. The woman has kept in her heart

 the flower's sweetest perfume, the flower, the woman's perfume.

    Léon Gozlan (1806-1866)

Translation from French to English copyright © 2003 by Faith J. Cormier .