"THE SOUL OF WINE
(from "Flowers of Evil")
In the bottles, the soul of the wine
one evening sang: "Within this
my glass prison and under the red
seals, towards you I push, o dear
disinherited, o Man, a song full
of light and fraternity. I know well
how much pain, sweat, and how much burning sun
are needed to give me life
and infuse me with soul. But ungrateful
I will not be, nor evil, for I feel
immense joy when in the throat
I fall of a man worn by work:
his chest for me is a sweet tomb
and I find myself better there than in the cold
of the cellars. Hear resounding
the refrains of your Sundays
and the hope that whispers within
my throbbing breast? ...In you
I will fall, vegetable ambrosia, grain
precious, scattered by the eternal
Sower, so that from our love
may be born the poetry that to God turned
will sprout in bud like a rare flower.""
Created by d'Araprì