Fierce from love - Delmira Agustini

Made fierce by love, I’m starving for hearts.

Pigeon, vulture, dun deer or lion,

no meat tempts me more with exotic flavors.

I’d blunted my claws and my primal drives.

Then, set up on a plinth, almost otherworldly,

a statue dazzled me–an ancient emperor.

And I fed my eagerness; over his stone body

my desire ascended like ivy lightning, sudden

up to his chest, feeding on skin like snow;

and I cried out to his unreachable heart . . . sculpture

guarding his glory, most chaste, still, and pure,

his face towards Tomorrow, feet rooted in Yesterday.

Everlasting my desire; on the stone body

I’ve stayed pressed like a living blood-filled vine;

And since then, dreaming, I devour

a statue’s heart, prey worthy of my gorgeous claws;

it’s not flesh, not marble: the stuff of stars,

without blood, heat, or heartbeat . . .

I devour it with deep, inhuman passion!

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Delmira Agustini [Pen name JouJou] (1886 - 1914) Uruguay

Translated by Liz Henry

Source: Composite