Romance

Give me this flower

crushed between your girdle and your heart!

I want it sad and colourless,

give it to me, pale and wilted.

Neither the rose, eternal fairy,

nor the just-opened lily

is worth the poor

smothered blossom's last sigh.

Sweet exchange that steals the soul.

The woman has kept in her heart

the flower's sweetest perfume,

the flower, the woman's perfume.