Love

Evil Love

by Paul Gérardy 1870–1933

Translated by Jethro Bithell (1911) · From Contemporary Belgian Poetry (1911)

Love

I have yearned for the wicked child
With her sensual mouth's red glow,
And her restless eyes that show
How sateless her soul is and wild.

The lustful virgin, the child
With her sick flesh fainting above
The sweat of novels of love,
By which her soul is defiled.

She sins in her sleep; and in
Her evil smile there gleams,
Implacable as her dreams,
The lust of perversion and sin.

I have dreamt of the virgin impure;
The fire of her hair has profaned
My chastity with its lure--
And my eyes with tears are stained.

MLA

Gérardy, Paul. “Evil Love.” Translated by Jethro Bithell. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/paul-gerardy/1/.

Chicago

Gérardy, Paul. “Evil Love.” Translated by Jethro Bithell. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/paul-gerardy/1/.

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