"Est-elle almée?..."

"Est-elle almée?..."

Is she an Egyptian dancer?...In the first blue hours

Will she destroy herself like deceased flowers...

Before the brilliant expanse where we feel

The enormously flourishing town exhale.

It's too exquisite! It's too exquisite! but so necessary

- For the Fisherwoman and the song of the Corsair,

And also since the last maskers believed

In night-feasts on the pure sea.

Translations by John Kinsella