THE PIPE

by Charles Baudelaire, translated to English by John Collings Squire

An author’s favourite pipe am I,
My Kaffir woman’s countenance
Tells the beholder at a glance
My master smokes incessantly.

If he is mournful or in pain
I smoke as does the ploughman’s cot
When the good wife prepares the pot
Before her spouse comes home again.

I bind his soul and rock her well
In the blue twisting skein which slips
And rises from my fiery lips,

And weave a very potent spell
Which soothes his heart in its distress
And heals his spirit’s weariness.

 

Blossoms of Evil (1857) by Charles Baudelaire - Translated by John Collings Squire
THE OWLS	MUSIC

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