The Mind

Sonnet XXVIII

by Charles Baudelaire 1821–1867

Translated by Cyril Scott (1909) · From Les Fleurs du Mal (1857)

The Mind

With pearly robes that wave within the wind,
Even when she walks, she seems to dance,
Like swaying serpents round those wands entwined
Which fakirs ware in rhythmic elegance.

So like the desert's Blue, and the sands remote,
Both, deaf to mortal suffering and to strife,
Or like the sea-weeds 'neath the waves that float,
Indifferently she moulds her budding life.

Her polished eyes are made of minerals bright,
And in her mien, symbolical and cold,
Wherein an angel mingles with a sphinx of old,

Where all is gold, and steel, and gems, and light,
There shines, just like a useless star eternally,
The sterile woman's frigid majesty.

MLA

Baudelaire, Charles. “Sonnet XXVIII.” Translated by Cyril Scott. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/baudelaire/15/.

Chicago

Baudelaire, Charles. “Sonnet XXVIII.” Translated by Cyril Scott. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/baudelaire/15/.

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