To a Lady on Her Translation of Voiture’s “Kiss.”
“Mon âme sur ma lèvre était lors tout entière,
Pour savourer le miel qui sur la vôtre était;
Mais en me retirant, elle resta derrière,
Tant de ce doux plaisir l’amorce l’arrêtoit!”
Voiture.
How heavenly was the poet’s doom,
To breathe his spirit through a kiss,
And lose within so sweet a tomb
The trembling messenger of bliss!
And, ah! his soul returned to feel
That it again could ravished be;
For in the kiss that thou didst steal,
His life and soul have fled to thee!
Moore.