Invitation for a Journey

Invitation for a Journey

For Annie

My child, my sister

think of the sweetness

of us residing out there

to love in leisure

to love … to die

inside the country that's you.

Where sunsets glisten

in nebulous skies

there my life is mesmerized—

how mysterious

your teacherous eyes

how through their tears they glitter.

Here: all is but order and beauty,

luxury, rest, and fatness.

Lustered furniture

polished by decades

would decorate our chateau,

exotic flowers

commingling

in ghostly scent of amber,

our ceilings vaulted,

our mirrors cavernous,

our great Western decadence,

all of this would speak

in ciphers of our love

in her warm and native tongue.

Here: all is but order and beauty,

luxury, rest, and fatness.

Look beyond the shore

cargoships which sleep

with daydreams of wandering

all to satiate

your slightest whim

they come from the furthest ends.

The sun is setting,

draping your valleys

your rivers, your whole city

hyacinth and gold,

and soon to slumber

tucks us under a warm gloam.

Here: all is but order and beauty,

luxury, rest, and fatness.

--Translation of L'invitation au Voyage by Baudelaire