Like angels with bright savage eyes

I will come treading phantom-wise

Hither where thou art wont to sleep,

Amid the shadows hollow and deep.

And I will give thee, my dark one,

Kisses as icy as the moon,

Caresses as of snakes that crawl

In circles round a cistern's wall.

When morning shows its livid face

There will be no-one in my place,

And a strange cold will settle here

Others, not knowing what thou art,

May think to reign upon thy heart

With tenderness; I trust to fear.

translated by George Dillon, 1936