Canto 25Since I have seen your face

Book 2. Part Two - Baroda Circa 1898 – 1902

Baroda, c. 1898–1902

Since I have seen your face

Since I have seen your face at the window, sweet

Love, you have thrown a spell on my heart, on my feet.

5My heart to your face, my feet to your window still

Bear me by force as if by an alien will.

O witch of beauty, O Circe with innocent eyes,

You have suddenly caught me fast in a net of sighs.

When I look at the sunlight, I see your laughing face;

10When I purchase a flower, it is you in your radiant grace.

I have tried to save my soul alive from your snare,

I will strive no more; let it flutter and perish there.

I too will seize your body alive, O my dove,

And teach you all the torture and sweetness of love.

15When you looked from the window out on the trampling city,

Did you think to take my heart and pay me with pity?

But you looked on one who has ever mocked at sin

And gambled with life to lose her all or win.

I will pluck you forth like a fluttering bird from her nest.

20You shall lie on Love’s strong knees, in his white warm breast,

Afraid, with delighted lids that will not close.

You shall grow white one moment, the next a rose.